Watchdog disciplines air official

The Control Yuan impeached deputy chief of security for the Presidential Office Shen Tsai-tien (沈再添) yesterday for failing to ensure safety at the Tainan Airport.

Shen, who was head of the air force division at the airport, was impeached for neglecting to supervise the airport and to maintain safety. This neglect led to the collision of a TransAsia Airways jet with an engineering vehicle on the runway on March 21, the impeachment paper stated.

The airport is used for both civilian and military purposes.

The TransAsia plane had 175 passengers and crew on board at the time of the collision.

The crash injured three people in the engineering vehicle; no passengers on the plane were hurt.

"The collision almost hit the aircraft's fuel tank and we cannot imagine how serious the casualties would have been if the engineering vehicle hit the fuel tank and caused an explosion," said Control Yuan Member Ko Min-mou (柯明謀).

Although the engineering vehicle must shoulder responsibility for violating runway-use policies, Control Yuan Member Leu Hsi-muh (呂溪木) said Shen deserved to be disciplined as he was in charge of safety and operations at the airport.

The Control Yuan confirmed Shen's impeachment with a vote of eight to five. It also impeached five of Shen's subordinates.

As the airport's top military officers, the six people neglected their duty to supervise and control airport operations and violated the Civil Servant Service Law (公務員服務法), the Control Yuan said.

Shen was promoted to his post at the Presidential Office on May 1, two months after the collision occurred.

The Presidential Office said yesterday it would respect the Control Yuan's decision to impeach Shen.

"We also respect Shen's decision to not comment until receiving the impeachment paper," spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) said.