The only Taiwanese passenger aboard the Turkish Airlines airplane that crashed in Amsterdam on Wednesday said yesterday that he feels very lucky to be alive.
Chen Shi-yin (陳詩尹), an engineer at a high-tech company in Hsinchu County, arrived at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday aboard a China Airlines flight, with a scraped forehead, his passport and a plastic bag. His luggage had been aboard the downed plane.
Recalling his narrow escape from death, Chen told reporters that when the crash occurred, his first thought was “So this is what a plane crash is.”
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The Boeing 737-800 airplane, with 135 people on board, crashed while trying to land at Schiphol Airport, killing nine people and injuring 84 others.
Chen said his job required him to travel frequently.
He was heading home from a job in Turkey and took the Turkish Airlines plane to Holland to connect with a flight to Taipei.
Chen said the flight became rough several seconds before the crash. The plane suddenly dropped for one or two seconds and he sensed the captain was trying to pull it up.
“I feel very lucky,” Chen said.
“Because I was the only Oriental on the plane, I got all the attention of the Chinese [language] media after being sent to a nearby hospital,” he said.
Asked whether he was worried about flying again, Chen said he would feel safer taking a Taiwanese airline. The first thing he wants to do after returning to Taiwan was to go home to his wife and five-year-old child, Chen said.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
RSS