Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council Releases Additional Info On Taiwan ATR Plane Crash

Home

Medical Factors Facing Pilots

Aviation Stories Of Interest

FAA Exam

Aviation News

Maintenance and Aircraft Mechanics

General Aviation

Helicopters

Aviation History

Legal Issues In Aviation

Links To Other Sites

Editorials

Hot Air Balloon

Aviation Training Handbooks Read Online

Upcoming Events

Editorials

Taiwan

's Aviation Safety Council Releases Additional Info On Taiwan ATR Plane Crash

February 6, 2015 - On Wednesday morning a Taiwan ATR 72-600 (B-22816) aircraft operated by TransAsia Airways crashed near Taipei Songshan airport (Taiwan). Flight GE235 was operating between Taipei and Kinmen with 58 people on board.

It has been reported at least 26 people were killed when the twin-engine turboprop clipped a highway bridge and crashed into the Keelung River shortly after taking off from Taipei Songshan Airport in Taiwan.

Just after takeoff Flight GE235 climb out to 1350 feet when it encountered a right engine fire, moments later the pilots mistakenly cut the fuel to the left engine resulting in a complete engine shutdown.

The pilot contacted Sung Shan Tower to declare his emergency, Mayday Mayday, engine flameout. The pilots attempted to restart the left engine with no luck. The aircraft stalled, at about 10:54 AM the aircraft banked almost 90 degrees, clipped a taxi on a bridge and then crashed into the Keelung River. It has been reported that this aircraft was only 10 months old.

The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder (“Black Boxes”) have been recovered and the Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council has provided a fairly detailed account of Flight GE235 just after takeoff:

"GE235 flight received take off clearance from SongShan tower at 1051:13, after took off, at 1052:33.8 ATC controller requested the crew to contact Taipei approach. After 5 seconds, (1052:38.3), master warning sounded in the cockpit associated with right engine(2) flame out procedure message on display unit.

"The crew called it out. At 1053:04.0 the recorded parameters indicated that the left engine power lever(1) was progressively retarded to flight idle. At 1053:24, the left engine condition lever(1) was set to fuel shutoff position resulting in left engine(1) shutdown. Between 1053:12.6 to 1053:18.8, several stall warnings sounded. Flight crew declared an emergency at 1053:34.9 and reported an engine flame out.

"At 1054:09.2, flight crew called several time for engine restart. At 1054:20 the recorded parameters indicates a restart of the left engine(1). At 1054:34.4, master warning sounded, 0.4 seconds later, CVR recorded unidentified sound. Both recorders stopped recording at 1054:36."