TransAsia GE235 crash: Flights cancelled to train Taiwan pilots
Checks have been ordered on all ATR planes in active
service in Taiwan
Taiwanese airline TransAsia Airways
says it is cancelling 90 flights so that its pilots can attend training, after
one of its planes crashed on Wednesday.
Flight GE235 plunged into a river in the capital Taipei, killing at least 40
of the 58 people on board.Officials are probing why both plane engines were off during the crash.
Data suggests that the pilots, who are among the dead, may have shut one engine off after the other lost power.
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) has ordered retraining for all TransAsia pilots flying its ATR fleet.
"All 71 ATR pilots will take part in proficiency tests carried out by the CAA and third-party professionals for an estimated four days," TransAsia Airways said in a statement (in Chinese).
The aviation regulator has also ordered engine and fuel system checks on the remaining 22 ATR-manufactured planes currently in active service on the island.
Taiwan crash puts ATR 72-600 airliner back in the spotlight
The ATR-72, which made its maiden flight in October 1988, has been involved in 15 accidents since 1994.
In an uncanny coincidence, the ATR 72-600 plane that crashed into a river in northern Taiwan yesterday was the same model that crashed and sank into a river in October 2013.
In the 2013 tragedy, the Lao Airlines plane was on a domestic flight from Vientiane, the Laos capital, to Pakxe in the southern part of the country when it crashed into the Mekong River, killing all 49 people on board.
Yesterday's TransAsia Airways crash has put the twin-engine turboprop ATR-72, made by French-Italian manufacturer Avions de Transport Regional (ATR), into the spotlight again.
It was the latest in a series of TransAsia's ATR-72s to have gone down, said Chris Yates, an aviation and security expert.
"The first accident of TransAsia happened in 1995, killing four crew members," Yates said.
In another TransAsia ATR crash, in July last year, 48 people died after the plane crashed on Taiwan's Penghu Island after the pilots could not find the runway. Ten people survived.
The ATR-72, which made its maiden flight in October 1988, has been involved in 15 accidents since 1994, according to Yates.
On Tuesday, a Garuda Indonesia ATR-72-600 from Bali skidded off the runway as it landed on the island resort of Lombok, in central Indonesia. No one on board was hurt.
But some analysts, like Yates, said that despite these incidents, the general safety record of the ATR-72 was relatively good.
"The ATR-72 is the safest aircraft you can possibly make. The latest crash is just an unfortunate accident that shouldn't have happened," said Yates.
He said there were different causes and conditions for each accident, adding that weather and the operations at the airport were all factors that could come into play.
"There is no common denominator on aircraft incidents like this … This aircraft dropped into relatively shallow water and I think we can know the answer very quickly," Yates said.
In yesterday's fatal crash, the last communication from one of the aircraft's pilots was "Mayday, Mayday engine flameout", according to an air traffic control recording on liveatc.net quoted by several news agencies.
A flameout happens when the fuel supply to the engine is interrupted or when there is faulty combustion, resulting in an engine failure. Twin-engined aircraft, however, are usually able to keep flying when one engine has failed. The plane was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW127M engines. Pratt & Whitney is part of United Technologies.
The ATR-72 is a popular aircraft for regional airlines. ATR has sold more nearly 1,500 aircraft and has more than 180 operators in more than 90 countries.
An ATR media officer said the company had no comment on the latest accident.
In the 2013 tragedy, the Lao Airlines plane was on a domestic flight from Vientiane, the Laos capital, to Pakxe in the southern part of the country when it crashed into the Mekong River, killing all 49 people on board.
Yesterday's TransAsia Airways crash has put the twin-engine turboprop ATR-72, made by French-Italian manufacturer Avions de Transport Regional (ATR), into the spotlight again.
It was the latest in a series of TransAsia's ATR-72s to have gone down, said Chris Yates, an aviation and security expert.
"The first accident of TransAsia happened in 1995, killing four crew members," Yates said.
In another TransAsia ATR crash, in July last year, 48 people died after the plane crashed on Taiwan's Penghu Island after the pilots could not find the runway. Ten people survived.
The ATR-72, which made its maiden flight in October 1988, has been involved in 15 accidents since 1994, according to Yates.
On Tuesday, a Garuda Indonesia ATR-72-600 from Bali skidded off the runway as it landed on the island resort of Lombok, in central Indonesia. No one on board was hurt.
But some analysts, like Yates, said that despite these incidents, the general safety record of the ATR-72 was relatively good.
"The ATR-72 is the safest aircraft you can possibly make. The latest crash is just an unfortunate accident that shouldn't have happened," said Yates.
He said there were different causes and conditions for each accident, adding that weather and the operations at the airport were all factors that could come into play.
"There is no common denominator on aircraft incidents like this … This aircraft dropped into relatively shallow water and I think we can know the answer very quickly," Yates said.
In yesterday's fatal crash, the last communication from one of the aircraft's pilots was "Mayday, Mayday engine flameout", according to an air traffic control recording on liveatc.net quoted by several news agencies.
A flameout happens when the fuel supply to the engine is interrupted or when there is faulty combustion, resulting in an engine failure. Twin-engined aircraft, however, are usually able to keep flying when one engine has failed. The plane was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW127M engines. Pratt & Whitney is part of United Technologies.
The ATR-72 is a popular aircraft for regional airlines. ATR has sold more nearly 1,500 aircraft and has more than 180 operators in more than 90 countries.
An ATR media officer said the company had no comment on the latest accident.
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