CI611 Missing
 

Chinese Media is reporting that China Airlines B747 CI 611 has gone missing near ELATO en route to HKG from TPE. As I write this, it is over 90 minutes. Any other info from other sources???:(

From the Beeb

A Taiwanese airliner carrying more than 200 people is reported to have gone missing during a flight to Hong Kong.
China Airlines flight C1611 disappeared from radar screens near the Taiwanese island of Penghu at 0713 GMT, shortly after leaving the capital Taipei, television reports said.

Taiwan's air force and coast guard were looking for the aircraft, a government spokesman said.

A 747-200 by all accounts, however OAG states a 744

:(

Here is an article from Skynews:

Taiwan Plane Crash: 219 Feared Dead





A China Airlines passenger aircraft has crashed into the sea on a flight from Taiwan to Hong Kong.

The Boeing 747-200 was carrying more than 200 passengers and 19 crew on the 90-minute flight.


The jumbo jet took off from Taiwan's Taipei airport at 3.11 pm local time and disappeared off radar screens 19 minutes later.

Military planes and vessels have been deployed in the area.

China Airlines is the national carrier of Taiwan and the Taipei-Hong Kong route is one of the busiest in Asia.

"The cabinet has formed an emergency team to deal with the situation," said Taiwan government spokesman Chuang Suo-han.

More to follow....

When oh when are the Chinese authorities from both sides of the 'straights' going to stop killing people. Surely, even they now recognise enormous shortfalls in thier aviation industry?

China Airlines B747? Off Radar
 

So? 'twas a time when the prune always had the post before the media. But then again navels have always been so captivating.

19th hull loss for CI incl. 3 747´s now.
Type was confirmed as 747-200 (B-18255)
254 plus 19 crew on board.
What a terrible year and a disastrous safety record for CI.
I thought CI had emerged out of their safety troubles and was on the way of rebuilding customer confidence...
Wondering what could have gone wrong. No hint of any emergency call yet.

more @: www.jacdec.de

My condolences and sympathies to all the victims relatives and friends.

This route is known locally as the Golden Route because of the amount of traffiic it carries. As direct air links betwen Taiwan and mainland China are still banned, a lot of travellers route via Hong Kong.
According to IATA, the route carried 4.7miilion passengers in 200, double the second busiest route between SG and KL.

Cathay Pacific and China Ailines between them do over 80% of the flights. CX does around 15 flights a day.

Local news media is now reporting that at least one body has been recovered from the water.

Condolences too all involved.

Here we go again! Armchair experts with statistics at hand. You could at least wait until the wreckage is located, not to mention the FDR.:mad:

This post has been inserted in the wrong place.HD

Hotdog, my apologies if I offended you. I do not claim to be an expert and I am certainly making no comments on the cause of the crash, just reporting information that others may not have.
I do have the advantage at the moment of having access to local media and the ability to get rt translation from Cantonese and Mandarin to English.

It's not you stickyb, you are quoting facts not connected to this accident.

HotDog
Just a reminder this is a Rumour Network. That is a network that is concerned with rumours. Maybe you pressed the wrong keys? Maybe you were looking for PPCrCi (The Pussy Preeners Crochet Circle)??

Hot Dog:

Too much chilli on your dog today?

All posts prior to your outburst are fair comment. Commercial airline operations on either side of the Taiwan Strait over the last 20 years are statistically proven to be of greater risk than in Europe or the US.

No one has ventured any guess as to the cause of the crash, so what's the point of your criticism of previous posters?

New record.

Within 90 minutes of original posting of this tragic accident the slagging has started.
45 years in aviation and 20000hrs in the logbook, sit back and relax Hot Dog.

Best regards
AV

>I thought CI had emerged out of their safety troubles and was >on the way of rebuilding customer confidence...

Ermmm we don't know the cause yet - it may have been nothing to do with (your implied) Pilot error

>Wondering what could have gone wrong.

Exactly.

This better not turn into another TW800 bullsh*t-fest.

Another terrible accident.

I cannot confirm or dispute whether China Airlines safety record was improving. But wasn't it China Airlines that took off on a taxi way at Alaska, which was 90 degrees off the direction of the runway (as well as being very narrow and almost too short for the aircraft to get airborne), leaving tyre tracks in the snow bank at the end of it?

Just a little note:

The plane (747-200D, B18255) is 22.8 years old and logged about 65000 (Edited: 64810) flight hours and 21000 (Edited: 21398) landings. It was to be flown to HK as it's last passenger flight for CI and back to Taipei at night, refurnished and sold to Orient Thai Airlines in June.

So The plane's last passenger flight for CI proved to be the last flight for the plane itself.

More: A check was done May 3rd, B check done April 4th, C check done November 25th 2001. Captain and Co-pilot both have about 10000 hrs and flight engineer have roughly 18000.

Edited again for spelling mistakes. :)

CI 611
 

Peanut Butter beat me to the same info' - Orient Thai will have to look elsewhere for a replacement.
By the 320 Driver - completely agree with you !!!