Wind shear on the runway and pilot errors likely caused a Daily Air airplane to veer off the runway when it tried to land at Lanyu Airport on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) last year, a report published yesterday by the Aviation Safety Council said.
On April 13, Daily Air’s Flight 55571 left Taitung Airport for Orchid Island with 19 people onboard: the captain, copilot, one maintenance crew member and 16 passengers
The airplane — a Viking DHC-6-400 — overran the runway and crashed into guard rails at Lanyu Airport.
The passengers were safely evacuated after the incident.
The council said it has also invited officials from the Transport Safety Board of Canada and Transport Canada — a department within the Canadian government in charge of developing transportation regulations, policies and services — to help investigate the causes of the accident.
Aircraft manufacturer Viking Air, aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Canada, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) and Daily Air have also sent representatives to help in the investigation.
The report showed that when the airplane tried to land on Lanyu, a crosswind caused the plane’s nose to deviate to the left.
The aircraft began drifting to the left after landing, possibly due to influence from a wind shear and pilot error, the report said.
The council said the captain had used the right rudder to stop the aircraft from further deviating to the left and also pulled the power levers into reverse.
However, the engine data record showed that the captain inadvertently pulled back the left power lever while he was intending to apply the right-turning power to assist him in correcting the direction of the aircraft.
The error resulted in an increase in the left reverse power and caused the plane to turn further to the left, the council said in the report.
“The captain attempted to get directional control of the aircraft by increasing the right rudder input and the right wheel brake pressure, but he continued to increase the left engine’s reverse power to the maximum, not knowing he was taking the wrong side. Consequently, the aircraft veered off the runway, hit the fence and caused substantial damage to the plane,” the report said.
The report also identified safety risks in Daily Air’s flight operation and management.
The captain and the copilot had not accumulated enough experience to fly the DHC-6-400, and their experience and familiarity in applying differential power for directional control during landing were very limited, the report said, adding that the two disagreed on how and when this particular procedure should be performed.
Daily Air failed to provide flight crew members detailed guidance on using differential power during landing or instruct them about the technique and timing for using it during their transition training, the report said.
Although Daily Air’s safety management committee and flight operations safety action group followed the requirements of the Safety Management Manual to convene meetings regularly, they failed to effectively review the internal and external safety data related to flight operation, the council said.
The airline’s principal instructor of safety management system (SMS) did not receive formal SMS training, as specified in the safety management manual, it said.
“Daily Air’s flight operations department not only failed to follow up on some of the findings of an internal evaluation program [IEP], but it also failed to conduct a trend analysis of IEP,” the council said, adding that this compromised the overall effectiveness of the program.
Although the CAA had conducted regular inspections of Daily Air’s flight operations’ internal evaluation program, several deficiencies identified during the investigation should have been addressed by thoroughly reviewing the airline’s IEP, the council said.
This indicates that the methods, frequency and focuses of IEP inspection performed by the CAA should be enhanced, it said.
The CAA should assess the priorities of airport runway improvement projects after the accident, such as giving priority to the hazards caused by non-fragile objects and open ditches on runway strips so as to enhance runway safety in a timely manner, it said.
‘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