A helicopter owned by Emerald Pacific Airlines (凌天航空) yesterday crashed while cleaning insulators on a Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) high-voltage electricity tower in New Taipei City’s Taishan District (泰山), killing two people on board.
The victims were identified as pilot Chen Hsiu-ming (陳秀明) and insulator cleaning technician Yu Hui-hsien (余惠賢). The Civil Aeronautics Administration said that Chen had accumulated 4,787 flight hours and held a valid certificate to operate helicopters.
Chen and Yu were sent to Taipei Hospital in the Sinjhuang District (新莊) and Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taoyuan respectively and were pronounced dead on arrival.
Photo: Huang Hsin-po, Taipei Times
The administration said that the Bell 206B helicopter was one of two aircraft assigned to clean high-voltage electricity tower insulators.
The helicopter departed from New Taipei City’s Yingge District (鶯歌) at 7am and crashed at about 11am.
The administration said that it was informed of the accident at 11:23am by the National Rescue Command Center, adding that it then established an emergency response team and dispatched representatives to the site, along with aviation accident investigators from the Aviation Safety Council.
The airline has five helicopters of the same model, including the one destroyed in the accident. Emerald Pacific has temporarily suspended high-voltage power line insulator cleaning operations because of the accident.
Taipower yesterday said in a statement that the accident might have been caused by the helicopter coming into contact with high-voltage power lines.
The power company said that it was sorry for what had occurred, adding that it had sent representatives to meet with the families of the victims after the accident and promised to assist them in handling funeral arrangements and other relevant matters.
Taipower said it would cooperate with the council to quickly determine the cause of the accident and prevent similar accidents from occurring.
Insulators on power substations have to be cleaned regularly, because dust and salt buildup affects the transmission of electricity, Taipower said, adding that while most insulator cleaning work is done by hand, it requires Emerald Pacific’s services to clean the upper part of towers.
The helicopter was manufactured on March 31, 2001, and had been in operation for nearly 14 years and eight months.
Apart from weekly inspections, all helicopters nationwide are required to undergo annual airworthiness inspections.
The crashed helicopter was scheduled to undergo the annual inspection next month, the administration said.
Taipower said that it recruited Emerald Pacific in 1998 to clean insulators on top of its power stations, with the accident being the first fatal on-the-job incident in 17 years.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s (黎智英) fraud conviction and prison sentence were yesterday overturned by a Hong Kong court, in a surprise legal decision that comes soon after Lai was jailed for 20 years on a separate national security charge. Judges Jeremy Poon (潘兆初), Anthea Pang (彭寶琴) and Derek Pang (彭偉昌) said in the judgement that they allowed the appeal from Lai, and another defendant in the case, to proceed, as a lower court judge had “erred.” “The Court of Appeal gave them leave to appeal against their conviction, allowed their appeals, quashed the convictions and set aside the sentences,” the judges
RSS