A Uni Air flight flying from Taipei International Airport (Songshan) to Taitung yesterday suffered a cracked windshield in the cockpit after taking off. Fortunately, it landed without incident at Taitung Fengnian Airport, albeit with a 20-minute delay and shaken passengers.
According to Uni Air, the DASH8-300 series plane, with aircraft number B7-855, carried 56 passengers, one of whom was an infant. The plane had reached cruising altitude at 4,877m when the captain noticed a small crack on the left front windshield of the cockpit. The captain immediately took the plane down to 1,829m and circled out over the Yilan coastline for about 20 minutes before resuming course toward Taitung.
A passenger surnamed Chung (鍾) recalled hearing some noises just as the flight attendants were beginning to serve beverages. Then the captain announced on the intercom that all flight attendants should take their seats, Chung said, adding that at the time of the broadcast he felt a severe pain in his ears.
The cabin’s air-conditioning was shut off and the captain announced that the plane had to drop lower due to some issues, Chung said.
Another passenger, surnamed Su (蘇), said she “was really scared” after hearing the noise and seeing the air-conditioner temporarily venting white smoke.
Chung recalled that after the plane came in view of the Taitung coastline the captain announced there was a problem with the cabin pressure gauge system, but added that everything was under control and shortly after the plane landed in Taitung Fengnian Airport.
Uni Air said it reported the incident to the Civil Aeronautics Administration and sent the plane in for repairs, adding that it would cooperate with a follow-up investigation.
Meanwhile, another incident of aeronautic security occurred in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday when a passenger told flight attendants after boarding a China Airlines CI-679 flight bound for Hong Kong that he had a bomb in his carry-on luggage.
The 38-year-old Chinese man, surnamed Wu (吳), and his wife were immediately escorted off the plane by aviation police after the flight attendant contacted the captain and the airline company.
After a thorough search of Wu’s person and his carry-on luggage, the aviation police confirmed it was a false alert. Nonetheless, China Airlines asked all 260 passengers to leave the plane while another security check took place.
Wu and his wife were detained for further questioning about his motivation for making the claim.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS