The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) yesterday said it reached a consensus with domestic airlines on adopting more conservative standards covering takeoffs and landings under weather conditions influenced by typhoons, adding that the carriers supported only self-regulation in each airline’s flight operations manual (FOM) instead of agreeing to a major revision of the nation’s aeronautical information publication (AIP).
The meeting was held in the wake of the weather-related crash of TransAsia Airways Flight GE222 in Penghu last month, which left 48 passengers dead and injured 10 others on board.
Criticism has focused on the flight’s taking off despite unstable weather conditions related to Typhoon Matmo. Soon after the incident, TransAsia announced that it would change its standards for landings and takeoffs in its manual, with its minimum visibility requirement to exceed the CAA’s standard by 50 percent.
Other carriers have yet to follow suit.
Yu Yi-shi (喻宜式), deputy director of the agency’s flight standards division, said after the meeting that carriers and agency officials reached several important agreements.
Most carriers state in their operations manuals that flights should not commence unless information from either intended destinations or backup airports indicates that the weather is at or above the aerodrome operation minimum requirement, he said.
Aerodrome is a general term for any site where flight operations take place.
“In the past, aircraft were allowed to take off if the weather either at the destination airport or at a backup site is good. Participants this time agreed that flights can only be cleared to take off in stormy weather if information showed that the weather in both the backup airport and the destination airport are good,” he said.
Additionally, flights must carry sufficient fuel to reach the farthest backup destination — which includes turning back to their departure airport, Yu said.
The on-board weather radar system must be proven to function normally during stormy weather, he added.
Participants have yet to agree on whether flights can take off in a window of time either three or six hours before and after a typhoon has left an area, Yu said, adding that officials and airline representatives would have to schedule another meeting to discuss defining “the period of time” when the nation’s weather remains under influence of a typhoon.
He also said that carriers do not agree with changing the nation’s AIP on the minimum visibility requirement for 17 domestic airports, as the rules are stipulated in accordance with international standards.
“The airports will restrict the takeoff and landing of aircraft if there are thunderstorms, but they would remain open if they fulfill the visibility requirement,” Yu said.
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