President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) 37-hour flight from Taiwan to Paraguay violated aviation safety rules in terms of limits on crew flying hours, the head of the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
CAA Director Chang Kuo-Cheng (
Chang made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature's Transportation Committee when questioned by People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Hung-chun (
"The 37-hour long flight really gripped people with fear and deep concern. Shouldn't aviation safety be the top priority for the president and the airline?" Lee said.
A decision to reject a US offer of a transit stop in Anchorage, Alaska, followed by Beirut's decision to not allow the president to land in Lebanon, meant that Chen took 37 hours and made transit stops in Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam before arriving in Paraguay.
"In accordance with the regulations, the crew on board the airplane are required to rest on the ground and the longest working day allowed is 14 hours," Chang said.
Chang added, "I am pretty sure that there was more than enough work for three sets of crews, but the total flying hours contravened the regulations."
He also said that the situation had been caused by "unpredictable factors," as the route of the president's flight was changed at the last moment.
Before the committee meeting, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislators Tsao Shou-min (
Chang said that they would review the matter after the plane returns to Taiwan.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported