A China Airlines Boeing 737-800 airliner burst into flames yesterday moments after landing on the Japanese island of Okinawa after all 165 passengers and crew made a dramatic escape.
Flames and giant plumes of black smoke erupted from the jet just after it landed at Naha Airport after a flight from Taipei.
"When we looked out the window, everything was covered with fire," an unidentified male passenger told reporters.
PHOTO: AP
"I saw several passengers evacuate the plane using a chute. After a minute or so, I heard the sound of an explosion. It was a big explosion," said Tadahiro Hasuo, who told Japanese TV network NHK he felt the heat of the blast while passing Naha airport in a taxi.
Video shot by an eyewitness and broadcast on TV showed passengers sliding down two chutes on the right side of the plane, while flames and thick black smoke billowed from the left.
Early investigations in Okinawa raised the possibility that leaking fuel may have caused the blaze.
PHOTO: AP
"We don't have any information that suggests the accident was linked to terrorism. There is a possibility of the engine catching fire and exploding due to a fuel leak," a Naha airport police official said.
One member of the ground crew had been injured, Kyodo news agency reported.
The flight landed using standard procedures and taxied to the designated gate, China Airlines spokesman Johnson Sun (孫鴻文) said at a news conference. The captain was later informed by the ground crew that one of the plane's engines was on fire and all 157 passengers and eight crew members were immediately evacuated by the emergency chutes, Sun said.
PHOTO: EPA
"We are very sorry and regret the accident," he said.
Following the explosion, the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) and Aviation Safety Council (ASC) held press conferences in Taipei to assuage public fears.
CAA Director-General Billy Chang (張國政) said that based on Taiwan's Aviation Occurrence Investigation Act (飛航事故調查法), the authority to investigate the accident lay in Japan's Aircrafts and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission (ARAIC).
Nonetheless, the administration has formed a special task force and immediately dispatched three CAA officials to Japan to assist officials from the ARAIC in the investigation.
Chang said that the nation had 15 Boeing 737-800 model planes, 12 of which are owned by China Airlines, including the plane that burned in Okinawa. Two belong to Mandarin Airlines and one, Air Force One, is owned by the Air Force. He said that these planes had been grounded by the CAA for further inspection.
Chang said the plane that had caught fire was only five years old and had just completed its routine maintenance on July 13. He said that a preliminary investigation showed the flight's captain was informed by ground staff about the fire after the plane landed at the airport.
Meanwhile, four ASC representatives arrived at Okinawa yesterday evening to start working with ARAIC and China Airline representatives to identify the cause of the explosion.
China Airlines, Taiwan's largest carrier, purchased the B737-800 passenger jet in July 2002. The company uses the B737-800s in its fleet to fly mainly short-haul Asian routes.
James Fang (方粵強), the director of the ASC's investigation department, told the Taipei Times that this type of incident had never occurred in the past.
Most of the Taiwanese passengers on the plane had been on package tours arranged by four travel agencies in Taiwan -- South East Travel Service (東南旅行社), Gloria Tours (喜美旅行社), Daiei Travel Service (大榮旅行社) and Mic Travel Co (萬達旅行社). Their luggage was destroyed in the fire.
China Airlines said it would compensate passengers NT$1,000 per kilogram of luggage, with a maximum compensation of NT$20,000 in accordance with civil aviation regulations. Compensation for the passengers' mental suffering had not been decided.
China Airlines has a patchy safety record and this is the carrier's fourth accident in 13 years.
After devoting huge resources to improving safety and regaining public confidence, the company was starting to see some positive results.
Despite high aviation fuel costs, the company posted a net income of NT$738.35 million (US$22.5 million), or NT$0.20 per share, last year. Company chairman Philip Wei (魏幸雄) said its operating costs were lower because of a lower insurance premium, which was 45 percent less than what the carrier used to pay, because of its better flight safety record.
But the carrier is once again under fire over the accident in Okinawa. The airlines' already ailing finances will be also affected by the loss. For the first quarter of the year, the carrier reported a loss of NT$805.83 billion, or negative NT$0.21 per share.
Following the accident, China Airlines president Ringo Chao (趙國帥) led a team to Okinawa.
During a press briefing last night, Chao said he regretted the accident and appreciated the aid offered by Japanese authorities.
Chao also said the company was uncertain of the cause of the explosion and would rely on the findings of investigators.
The last accident involving China Airlines was on May 25, 2002, when a Boeing 747-200 broke up and crashed into the sea near the Penghu Islands 20 minutes after takeoff from Taipei on a flight to Hong Kong. The crash caused the death of all 206 passengers and 19 crew members.
Meanwhile, the Air Force yesterday said that it would carry out stricter maintenance on Air Force One, which is also a 737-800.
"Because of a request from the Civil Aeronautics Administration, we will carry out a special detailed check on the aircraft as soon as possible," said Lieutenant General Jason Liu (
Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS