Legislators from across party lines yesterday lambasted the central government for its inadequate response to Wednesday’s crash of TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 in Taipei, saying that it did not take control of emergency operations from local governments until three days after the accident occurred.
The Disaster Prevention and Rescue Law (災害防救法) stipulates that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is the designated authority in charge of rescue operations in an aviation accident, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said, adding that Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Chien-yu (陳建宇) failed to immediately set up an emergency command center to facilitate rescue operations.
DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said that the central government established the National Rescue Command Center following the Pachang Creek Incident (八掌溪事件) in 2008 — in which four workers were swept away by a flash flood after waiting to be rescued in the middle of the creek for more than two hours — to immediately respond to air crashes or marine accidents.
However, Wednesday’s crash demonstrated that central government officials are incapable of any action other than offering condolences to the families of victims, he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Kuo-cheng (林國正) said that the central government should have played a more active role in the emergency operations, adding that the government’s ineffectiveness was particularly curious, seeing as Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) previously served as transportation minister from 2008 to 2013.
However, Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) rejected the allegation that the central government was not doing its best, saying that the army and coast guard had been dispatched to join rescue operations from day one, and that the central government had established an emergency response center at the same time as Taipei and New Taipei City, with the Chen coordinating operations from the center and Vice Premier Simon Chang (張善政) at the crash site.
Mao asked Minister of National Defense Kao Kuang-chi (高廣圻) to commit army troops to the crash site and asked the transportation ministry, the Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation to contact the families of passengers immediately after the crash, Sun said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
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