The Aviation Safety Council (ASC) is soon to unveil the factual details recorded in the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder — or “black boxes” — of TransAsia Airways Flight GE222 that crashed on Wednesday night last week, the council said yesterday, adding that it would continue to investigate the cause of the accident.
The airplane crashed close to the Magong Airport in Penghu, killing 48 persons on board and injuring 10 others.
Aviation Safety Council Executive Director Thomas Wang (王興中) said the investigators had recorded the parameters of 180 items from the black boxes, adding that investigators need to compare these parameters with the information provided by air traffic control personnel, the radar system and global positioning system.
Photo: Sam Yeh AFP
“The council will disclose the factual details to the public as soon as the decoding work is complete, but we will continue to investigate the cause of the accident,” he said.
Apart from the council’s investigators, representatives of the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety, engine manufacturer Pratt and Whitney Canada, as well as the manufacturer of the ATR72-model aircraft arrived in the nation on Friday to help with the investigation.
According to the council, representatives from these agencies inspected the aircraft wreckage in Magong over the weekend. They are scheduled to meet with council investigators today to integrate all the collected information and sign a confidentiality agreement about the investigation.
The council is also scheduled to present a preliminary investigation report to the International Civil Aviation Organization at the end of next month.
While media reported that the council could unveil the conversations recorded in the cockpit on Wednesday, Wang did not commit to a specific date and simply said the council would do so as soon as the decoding work is done.
The cockpit voice recorder contains the conversations between the pilot and copilot in the last 30 minutes before the crash, including the voices recorded from the microphones of the pilot, the cockpit and cabin broadcast system.
The flight data recorder, on the other hand, records the airplane’s altitude, operational speed, engine performance and other data.
Meanwhile, the rescue team removed the cordons set up around the crash site in Sisi Village (西溪) yesterday. The wreckage was relocated to an air force base in Magong on the weekend.
The military had dispatched personnel to sterilize Sisi Village to prevent the spread of disease. Fire trucks were also sent to clean the area of aviation fuel.
Statistics from the Civil Aeronautics Administration showed that the identities of 46 of the victims have been confirmed as of 4pm yesterday.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
RSS