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Rumors fly around aviation safety meeting

In the wake of last week's agreement between the Straits Exchange Foundation and China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait on increasing the number of cross-strait charter flights, officials from the Aviation Safety Council (ASC) met representatives from China's Office of Aviation Safety yesterday to discuss differences in handling aviation issues.

The ASC tried to downplay the meeting, saying it was just “an academic seminar” among aviation experts.

However, the fact that it was being held immediately after the second round of cross-strait negotiations and was closed to the media triggered speculation that it was a preparatory meeting for a cross-strait flight safety agreement.

Based on the agreement reached at last week's negotiations, the number of cross-strait charter flights will increase from 36 to 108 per week, with the service offered on a daily basis.

The two countries will also start providing 60 cargo charter flight service per month.

ASC director Yang Hung-chi (楊宏智) said that the two sides merely exchanged views on various issues, including regulations governing investigations of aviation accidents and aircraft maintenance issues.

Yang said that the two sides had different definitions of “accidents.”

They also have different standards on the kind of accidents that need to be reported or investigated, which also determines the authorities in charge of the investigation.

Yang said that the council is in charge of investigating all the accidents that occur in Taiwan. In China, the State Council is in charge of investigating accidents if more than 30 passengers are killed.

Yang denied that the two sides would sign any aviation safety agreement.

“[An aviation safety agreement] is a political issue,” he said. “Therefore the council is not authorized to reach one.”
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