TAIPEI CRASH: CAA dismisses engine problems
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) yesterday denied that pilots of the TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 that crashed on Wednesday had identified problems with their aircraft’s engines before they took off from the Taipei International Airport (Songshan).
The airlines ground crew also did not let the flight leave with a bad engine to avoid government penalties for a flight delay, the agency said.
The comments came in response to a story in yesterday’s Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), which cited information provided by an alleged TransAsia Airways pilot, who said that the aircraft, serial number B-22816, had completed one round-trip from Taipei International Airport (Songshan) to Kinmen.
The person told the Liberty Times that Flight GE235 pilot Liao Chien-tsung (廖建宗) had identified problems with the engines in the technical log book after the flight returned from Kinmen to Songshan.
The story also quoted the source as saying TransAsia’s ground crew workers feared that a delay in Flight GE235’s departure would cause the company to be penalized by the government, and so they decided to let the flight take off with a problematic engine and conduct a more thorough inspection of the engine when the aircraft returned from Kinmen.
The CAA displayed the aircraft’s technical logs, which showed that the plane had been used to conduct flights GE231 and GE232 before Flight GE235. No engine problem was entered in the log book.
The administration said that the log book for Flight GE235 was on board the airplane when it went down, adding that it was impossible that the aircraft could be cleared to take off with engine problems.
Aviation experts have been puzzled over the fact that the aircraft stalled less than two minutes after takeoff.
Some CAA flight instructors have looked at a video captured by a car’s dash camera and questioned why the aircraft appeared to operate stably until it experienced a stall, which caused its body to tilt before crashing into the river.
TAIPEI CRASH: CAA dismisses engine problems - Taipei Times