Officials today reassured legislators that Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is safe for use, following concerns that the runway is shorter than that at the South Korean airport where a deadly plane crash occurred yesterday.
Yesterday morning, a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crashed in Jeju Island’s Muan International Airport, with videos showing the plane sliding across the runway before colliding with a concrete wall and bursting into flames.
All 175 passengers and four of the six crew were killed. Only two of the crew members survived.
Photo: Taipei Times
The runway in Songshan airport is even shorter than the one involved in the accident, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) told a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee.
In 2004, there was a near-incident at the airport in which a plane overshot its landing and stopped just short of the runway’s edge, Lee said.
Following the near-miss in 2004, the airport installed an engineered materials arrestor system (EMAS) at the end of the runway, which is tested every two years, Taiwan Transportation and Safety Board chairman Lin Shinn-der (林信得) said.
Unlike concrete, EMAS can absorb the energy of an aircraft to slow it down without destroying it, he said, adding that it is common in urban airports around the world where space is limited.
The system’s installation and replacing perimeter walls with materials designed to be less hard has allowed the Songshan airport to accept larger aircraft, he added.
The Civil Aviation Administration is to study the South Korean incident to determine whether further improvements are needed at the Songshan airport, Lin said, adding that other international aviation authorities would be studying the incident as well.
Meanwhile, Lee said that videos of the Jeju Air accident show the plane’s landing gear failing, and raised concerns that China Airlines has 10 aircraft of the same model.
Regardless of model, the board recommends that airlines increase regular testing and routine aircraft maintenance, board executive director Lin Pei-da (林沛達) said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS