The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved draft amendments to the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法) that include a provision stipulating that airline owners who unexpectedly close down their airlines would face a maximum prison term of three years and a maximum fine of NT$200 million (US$6.86 million).
The draft amendments were proposed in light of TransAsia Airways’ unexpected closure in 2016, which caused losses to its passengers and shareholders.
According to the amended act, airlines must submit a closure plan to the Civil Aeronautics Association (CAA) two months before they intend to end operations.
Airlines that breach this rule would face a fine of between NT$600,000 and NT$3 million, while their owners could be fined between NT$600,000 and NT$12 million.
Airline owners that cause third parties severe losses as a result of unexpected closure would face a maximum prison term of three years and a fine of between NT$20 million and NT$200 million, the amendments say.
They also impose rules on drones, with drones weighing 250g or more or determined by the CAA to be equipped with “special features” requiring to be registered with the agency and local governments, and their owners required to pass a license test administered by the agency.
People who illegally fly drones near airports, flight-restricted areas or no-flight areas would face a fine of between NT$300,000 and NT$1.5 million, and have their drones confiscated.
Meanwhile, proposed amendments to the Alternative Service Regulations for Military Service (替代役實施條例) were approved after a third reading, giving Aboriginal conscripts priority to perform services at their settlements when being assigned their alternative military service.
New Power Party Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal, an Amis, and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a Puyuma, who proposed the amendments, said the new stipulation would allow young Aborigines to learn more about their culture.
A new rule introduced by People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) stipulates that supervisors of alternative service personnel who assault, verbally insult or cause the health of personnel to seriously deteriorate are to be fined between NT$50,000 and NT$500,000.
Chen Yi-chieh said the new rule is an improvement on former regulations, which only stipulated that the quota on the number of alternative service personnel a government or public agency could recruit should be reduced or canceled if it is found to have mistreated alternative service personnel.
That did not provide conscripts with enough protection, the PFP lawmaker said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching