Plane crash death toll rises to 40
Print Edition
RESCUE workers yesterday recovered five more bodies from the Keelung River in Taipei, taking the death toll from the TransAsia Airways plane crash to 40.
Fifteen people survived the crash, while three others are still missing.
Thirty-one tourists from the Chinese mainland who had just completed visits to Taiwan were on board the plane bound for Kinmen when the tragedy happened. At least 26 of them died in the crash.
A public memorial ceremony has been scheduled for Tuesday in Taipei.
In the wake of the tragedy, TransAsia Airways yesterday canceled dozens of flights as its pilots undergo retraining.
Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration ordered all the airline’s staff who fly ATR planes to take tests on operating the aircraft after it emerged that the pilots might have inexplicably shut off one of the engines before flight GE235 went down last week.
“Starting today, all of TransAsia’s 71 ATR pilots will undergo tests to be carried out by the CAA and third-party professional units for an estimated period of four days,” the carrier said in a statement.
“As a result, some of our domestic flights will be adjusted,” it said, adding that the move will affect 90 flights through Monday.
Pilots who fail the tests will be grounded immediately for an indefinite period of time pending further qualification training, the CAA said.
A TransAsia ATR 72-600 plane plunged into the Keelung River with 53 passengers and five crew members on board.
The fatal incident was the airline’s second in seven months.
Five bodies were found downstream of the crash site, including one in flight attendant’s uniform, during a blanket search of the river by hundreds of rescuers and divers yesterday, the Taipei city fire department said.
Rescuers found the bodies in waters 500 meters, 600m and 1 kilometer downstream from the crash site, Taiwan’s disaster response center said.
The latest incident comes after aviation authorities said TransAsia Airways had failed to meet about a third of the regulatory requirements imposed after another fatal crash in Taiwan’s western Penghu islands in July.
Investigators are trying to establish what caused Wednesday’s crash, but initial reports from the planes’ black boxes found the right engine had “flamed out” about two minutes after takeoff.
Warning signals blared in the cockpit and the left engine was then shut down manually by the crew for unknown reasons, Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council said on Friday.
“The pilot tried to restart the engines but to no avail. That means that during the flight’s final moments, neither engine had any thrust,” said the council’s director Thomas Wang.
“We heard ‘Mayday’ at 10:54:35.”
Analysts have said the pilots might have caused the crash by turning off the wrong engine.
Startling amateur footage showed the plane hitting the road as it banked steeply away from buildings and into the river.
Chief pilot Liao Chien-tsung has been hailed as a hero after reports emerged that his body was found still clutching the joystick, after he apparently battled to avoid built-up areas.
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