The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) has grounded three flight crew after their plane took off in the wrong direction early this year in Alaska, officials said yesterday.
The two pilots and a co-pilot of China Airlines will be grounded for up to eight months according to a CAA decision made during a recent flight safety meeting.
The carrier also hinted that the three could also be fired for the January mishap, when the landing gear of a China Airlines jetliner carrying 250 passengers and crew hit a pile of snow at the end of a taxiway at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
The jet departed safely and landed without incident later in Taiwan.
"The three can appeal if they feel unsatisfied with our ruling," CAA director Billy Chang (
"The purpose [of the decision] is to ensure such events will not recur."
According to the CAA ruling, the three pilots would be required to take new flight training programs and pass tests before being given licenses to fly again.
The air carrier hinted that it may slap a harsh penalty on the three crew even as it said a final decision has yet to be made.
"We are adopting more stringent flight standards than before. For flight safety considerations, they may be asked to retire ahead of schedule. But then again, we have yet made a final decision on this," airline spokesman Roger Han (
The event rekindled memories of a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 bound for Los Angeles which slammed into construction equipment while taking off from a closed runway at Chiang Kai-shek airport in 1999. Eighty-three people were killed in the incident.
Singapore Airlines sacked the two pilots of the ill-fated plane after local authorities blamed pilot error for the tragedy, with manslaughter charges against the pair conditionally suspended for three years.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS