TransAsia Airways (復興航空) Flight GE222 had deviated from its flight path before crashing near Magong Airport in Penghu on Wednesday last week, the Aviation Safety Council (ASC) said yesterday, adding that it crashed eight seconds after the pilots considered “going around” for another approach.
The council presented the results of its preliminary investigation yesterday after listening to the plane’s cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR).
Council executive director Thomas Wang (王興中) said the wreckage of the aircraft was found in the forest and some houses outside Magong Airport.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
Wang said the flight crew had deactivated the autopilot system about two minutes after it was given permission at 7:03pm to land on Runway 20.
However, the aircraft started deviating from its flight path and dropped altitude. The flight crew then talked about the possibility of going around, according to the black box recordings, Wang said.
While Magong Airport requires landing aircraft to approach the runway at 201 degrees, the recordings showed that the plane had shifted to 188 degrees, Wang said.
Investigators found that the speed of the left engine (Engine No. 1) had decelerated at 7:06:13, only two seconds after the two pilots talked about going around.
At the same time, the CVR recorded sounds from unidentified sources, which investigators said could be noises made when the plane flew into the forest. When the investigators found the engine at the crash site, they discovered that the engine’s intake valve was filled with tree branches.
According to the engine’s manufacturer, Pratt & Whitney Canada, the tree branches could have hindered the engine’s ability to generate power, Wang said.
To complete the going around, an aircraft must accelerate.
The CVR also showed that the pilots asked the air traffic personnel’s permission to go around, which was again followed by recordings of indistinguishable sounds.
In terms of weather conditions, Wang said the FDR showed that the wind speed did not change much — varying between 40 and 50 nautical miles (74 to 93km) when the aircraft tried to approach the runway.
Wang said the pilots talked about the weather conditions twice. The first time was before they talked about switching from Runway 20 to Runway 02. The second time was when they asked to land at Runway 20 again, in which they noted that “the wind was very strong.”
“The pilots did not express verbally that there was an emergency situation,” Wang said.
Wang added that the investigators did not hear from the CVR the pilots saying “No way,” as some media reports had said.
Conversations transcribed from the black boxes also showed that the pilots requested to switch from Runway 20 to Runway 02 twice after they were informed that visibility at the airport was only 800m.
However, they requested to land on Runway 20 after they were told that visibility had improved to 1,600m and another ATR aircraft owned by Uni Air (立榮航空) had secured permission to land on Runway 20.
According to the Civil Aeronautics Administration, there was a strong southwesterly wind blowing on Penghu that day because of Typhoon Matmo. As aircraft need to land or take off against the wind’s direction, all the planes arriving in Penghu that day were to land on Runway 20.
Magong Airport’s Runway 02 is equipped with an instrument landing system, which requires a minimum visibility of 800m. However, aircraft landing on Runway 20 need to follow the guidance of an VHR omnidirectional range (VOR) navigation system, which requires a visibilility of 1,600m.
The council’s report still left many questions unanswered, such as whether the engine decelerated because of engine failure or because of the tree branches that were sucked into the engine.
Investigators also need to determine why the plane deviated from its course, as the VOR was found to be functioning normally at the time, and why the plane changed altitude drastically after the pilots talked about going around.
Wang said the council is scheduled to submit a preliminary report of the investigation to the Executive Yuan and International Civil Aviation Organization before the end of this month.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique