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
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