A passenger airplane operated by Daily Air yesterday overran the runway and crashed into guard rails at Lanyu Airport on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said.
There were 19 people on board the de Havilland Canada DHC6-400 aircraft, including two pilots, one crew member and a toddler, when the incident happened at about 4:32pm, the administration said.
The passengers, who had embarked on Flight 55571 at Taitung Airport, were safely evacuated following the accident, the agency said, adding that only two passengers reported slight discomfort in their ankles.
Photo: CNA, provided by the police
Photographs taken by Lanyu Airport staff showed the airplane’s fuselage lodged in a ditch between the guard rails and the runway, with damage visible to the wings and engines.
The agency said that staff at Taitung Airport and Lanyu Airport formed an emergency task force to handle the accident, along with local firefighters.
Daily Air was ordered to take care of the passengers, it added.
The agency and the Aviation Safety Council are to be jointly responsible for investigating the incident, the CAA said.
The incident disrupted Daily Air’s flight schedule.
Eight people on Orchid Island who were scheduled to return to Taitung on the last flight offered by Daily Air yesterday were rescheduled to spend the night on the island, the agency said.
As of the press time last night, the airline said it was trying to contact passengers who were scheduled to fly from Taitung to Orchid Island before 1pm today about changes in its flight schedule, and that passengers are advised to contact the airline for details.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
RSS