5 aircraft accidents in Taiwan since 2000

The ATR-72-600 operated by TransAsia took off from Taipei, Taiwan, for a passenger flight to Kinmen, Taiwan. 53 passengers and 5 crewmembers were onboard. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff in the water of the Keelung River near the Nankang Software Park, 2.9 NM from the end of runway. 15 occupants were injured, and 43 occupants were killed. The airplane took off from Taipei-Sung Shan Airport's runway 10 and turned right, climbing to an altitude of 1350 feet. Around a minute after takeoff, the crew radioed "Mayday! Mayday! Engine Flame Out!". The airplane turned left and began losing altitude and speed. It then turned to the right before banking almost 90 degrees left again. The plane plummeted, struck a taxi on a viaduct with its left wing and impacted the Keelung River and came to rest inverted. Both occupants of the taxi were taken to a hospital with minor injuries. 37 seconds after becoming airborne, a master warning activated related to the failure of the right hand engine triggered in the cockpit. The crew called it out, and then the left hand engine thrust lever was progressively retarded to flight idle. Then the condition lever was set to fuel shut off position resulting in the shut down of the left hand engine. 28 seconds after the master warning, the right hand engine auto-feathered. At that time, both engines were therefore not providing anymore power to the aircraft. 6 seconds later, a stall warning occurred. The crew attempted several time to restart the left engine. The parameters suggest the left hand engine was restarted around 10 seconds before the crash.

The ATR-72-212A operated by Transasia took off from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for a passenger flight to Makung, Taiwan. 54 passengers and 4 crewmembers were onboard. The plane crashed during its approach to Makung airport. 11 people received injuries, 47 occupants perished. Strong gusting winds were prevailing at the time of the accident. The plane was on approach to Makung, descending through about 300 feet AGL about 1000 meters short of the runway when the aircraft made ground contact, struck buildings and burst into flames. The ATR 72 ended near the village of Xixi in the Husi Township.

The aircraft departed Taipei for a cargo flight to Macau, near Hong Kong. While cruising at FL160, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens and crashed into the sea. Both crew members were killed.

The aircraft was on a passenger flight from Taiwan's Chiang Kai Shek Airport to Hong Kong. The flight duration was expected to be 1h20. About 20 minutes after takeoff, while cruising at FL350, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens and crashed into the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China. Radar data suggests that the aircraft broke into four pieces while at FL350. This theory is supported by the fact that articles, which would have been found inside the aircraft (magazines, etc.) were found up to 80 miles (150 kilomètres) from the crash site. There was no sign of an explosion on the recovered debris, and no distress call was received from the flight crew. Weather around the time of the accident was clear. The final investigation report found that the accident was the result of "metal fatigue" due to inadequate maintenance after a previous incident. The report finds that on February 7, 1980, the accident aircraft suffered a tail strike occurrence in Hong Kong. The aircraft was then ferried back to Taiwan on the same day un-pressurized and a temporary repair was conducted the day after. A permanent repair was conducted on May 23 through 26, 1980. However, the permanent repair of the tail strike was not accomplished in accordance with the Boeing SRM (Structure Repair Manual), in that the area of damaged skin in Section 46 was not removed and the repair doubler did not extend sufficiently beyond the entire damaged area to restore the structural strength. Consequently, after repeating cycles of depressurization and pressurization during flights, the weakened hull started to crack gradually and finally broke open in flight on that flight, exactly 22 years after the faulty repair has been applied to the damaged tail. An explosive depressurization of the aircraft occurred once the crack was broken, causing the complete disintegration of the aircraft mid-air. All 225 passengers and crew members were killed.

On October 31, 2000, Singapore Airlines (SIA) Flight SQ006, a Boeing 747-400 aircraft, bearing Singapore registration No. 9V-SPK, crashed on a partially closed runway during takeoff. Heavy rain and strong winds from typhoon “Xangsane” prevailed at the time of the accident. SQ006 was on a scheduled passenger flight from Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport (CKS Airport), Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, Republic of China (ROC) to Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California, USA. The flight departed with 3 pilots, 17 cabin crewmembers, and 159 passengers aboard. The aircraft was destroyed by its collision with construction equipment and runway construction pits on Runway 05R, and by post impact fire. There were 83 fatalities, including 4 cabin crewmembers and 79 passengers, 39 seriously injured, including 4 cabin crewmembers and 35 passengers, and 32 minor injuries, including 1 flight crewmember, 9 cabin crewmembers and 22 passengers. In the investigation report stated that the probable causes are: The flight crew did not review the taxiing route, despite having all the relevant charts, and as a result did not know the aircraft had entered the wrong runway (the aircraft entered runway 05R instead of runway 05L). Upon entering the wrong runway, the flight crew had neglected to check the Para Visual Display (PVD) and the Primary Flight Display (PFD) as it would have supposedly told them that the aircraft was lined up on the wrong runway. Due to the Typhoon Xangsane's imminent arrival and the poor ambient conditions, the flight crew lost situational awareness and attempted to take off from the wrong runway. The following element may or may not have contributed to the accident The first series of taxiway lights leading to 05L were damaged. CVR transcriptions The following are selected excerpts from SQ006's CVR prior to the accident. All times are in UTC.