Asia-Pacific News
China Airlines plane catches fire at Okinawa airport (3rd Roundup)
Aug 20, 2007, 10:19 GMT
An aircraft taxies on the tarmac as an investigation team from the Ministry of Transportation inspect the remains of the China Airlines Boeing 737 at Naha airport in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, 20 August 2007. Bounded from Taipei, a China Airlines airplane went up in flames today after landing at Naha airport. EPA/HITOSHI MAESHIRO
Tokyo/Taipei - A China Airlines plane was engulfed in flames Monday after one of its engines exploded upon landing on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. At least one person was injured.
The left engine of Flight CI-120 belonging to the Taiwan airline caught fire at Naha airport, but all of its 157 passengers, including two infants, as well as its eight crew members were able to evacuate the plane on emergency chutes, Japanese and Taiwan authorities said.
There were conflicting reports about injuries with the Japanese side saying one of the plane's crew was hurt, only to be denied by Taiwan airline officials.
A member of the ground crew was injured. None of the passengers were hurt, but two passengers of Chinese nationality, ages 7 and 57, were also taken to hospital after becoming ill following the evacuation from the Boeing 737-800, which had flown from Taipei.
The jet was taxiing on the tarmac when ground personnel alerted the pilot that the engine had caught fire, Taiwan authorities said.
The plane's occupants were evacuated before the left engine exploded minutes after the plane was parked, a Japanese transport ministry official added.
Fire and black smoke engulfed the plane, which broke into three parts, before the blaze was extinguished an hour later.
Taiwan's ERA cable TV channel quoted some passengers as saying they heard an explosion in the engine before the fire.
Among the 165 people on board, 114 were Taiwanese, most of whom were tourists; 19 were Japanese; and 24 were of other nationalities, China Airlines said.
Taiwan aviation authorities dispatched a 20-member team to Okinawa to investigate the fire.
'Experts from the Civil Aeronautics Administration [CAA], the Aviation Safety Council and China Airlines will fly to Okinawa this afternoon,' CAA Director General Chang Kuo-cheng said at a news conference before the group left Taiwan.
Joining the investigators on their flight to Naha was Taiwan reporters and family members of Flight CI-120's passengers.
'As the accident occurred on Japanese soil, Japanese aeronautics authorities are in charge of the investigation, so we will assist them in the probe and will give them full cooperation,' Chang said.
Chang added that the Boeing 737-800 had undergone regular maintenance and showed no sign of malfunctioning from the time it left Taipei to its landing at Naha airport.
Chang said the Boeing 737-800 was delivered to China Airlines in July 2002 and had accumulated 13,666 flight hours. Its last safety check was on July 13, he said.
He said all 15 Boeing 737-800s in Taiwan, including 12 belonging to China Airlines and a plane used by Taiwan's president, would be grounded for special checks that would include examination of the engines, fuel systems, wings, pumps and fuel ducts.
Prime Minister Chang Chun-hsiung ordered speedy assistance for the passengers and their families as well as a thorough investigation into the cause of the explosion.
China Airlines plans to compensate the passengers for their lost baggage and cancelled trips, spokesman Sun Hung-wen added in Taipei.
Despite the fire, most of the Taiwan tourists on board planned to continue with their tour of Okinawa, even after their luggage and ID documents were burned, ERA TV reported.
Taiwan's largest air carrier has seen nine accidents in the past 27 years, including a crash in April 1994 in Nagoya, Japan, in which 264 of the 271 people on board died.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
First the pet food, then the toys, and now the jets. What next?
China is really on a roll. How abt. a little TQM there Chairman Mao!
So much for taking over the world.
Beltway Greg
China Airlines is based in The Republic of China (Taiwan) not The People's Republic of China (mainland China). Two different countries. The toys, pet food, etc. was made in The People's Republic of China.
Where do you get the 3000+ in 5 years from? According to airsafe.com they have not had a fatal accident since 2002.
Taiwan is twisted, they don't want to be part of China but at the same time they call their airline China Airline...
Adam Air 574, Kenya Airways 507, China 120 what do they have in
common other than B737? Google 'HawksCAFE'.
I don't know what will happen if my grand parents were on board. They are so old they probably can't evacuate within seconds......
CI Flights really put shame on the Taiwanese!! Every 2 years there is something large like this and there is no improvement at all. China Airlines = Shame of Taiwan.
According to Airsafe.com there are about 800 ppl died from China Airlines. Andrea is probably wrong, but here is a link and enjoying counting..
w.airsafe.com/events/airlines/taiwan.htm
I am surprised how one airline can have such a poor safety record over and over... This is unbelivable.
In this age most airlines have such excellent track records. Its much safer to fly that travel by road. But how come this particular airline
is taking the lead even airlines in Africa or South America dont have such a horrible record.
Time for authorties to take a look.
I dont think its fair to comment over diplomatic or political issues over this incident.
Whats fair is to see why this is happening over and over as the previous
comment states.
It should be grounded and a serious evaluation done. Its just too much to take another risk.
While watching planes from an airline lounge on Friday, I was talking to a Chinese man (not sure if he was from mainland or Taiwan) about the aviation industry. We did discuss the CI-120 incident and he had an interesting theory. He suggested that the incident may have been 'created' to cast doubts on the quality of Boeing planes. This would be in retaliation for America's very public criticism of the quality of Chinese products over the last few months.
I told him I would find this hard to believe but it really made me think. I really wouldn't want to live in a world where such incidents are 'created'!
On Aug 20th, 2007 - 18:28:29 Beltway Greg wrote:
Greg -Please be way more careful talking down to other cultures. First of all, irrespective of the various other quality issues in Chinese exports, this accident had little or nothing to do with China or the Taiwanese since the aircraft involved, a Boeing 737, was manufactured in the United States. The issue that caused this accident, recently disclosed, was a stray bolt, possibly F.O.D. (Foreign Object Debris), that punctured a slat-track can residing within the wing's fuel tank, allowing fuel to spill out during the landing phase. Fortunately all survived.
Such accidents typically occur due to incorrect manufacturing practices at airframe manufacturers. Special procedures have been set up to prevent, control and remove any FOD that is accidentally left in the Slat Track Cans during wing assembly, however they may not have been properly followed in this case. Such FOD can also be introduced during routine airframe systems maintenance.
Long story made short: you may have been critical of a problem that was created in the USA, and which lay dormant for several weeks, months or years before the accident actually occurred. A little diplomacy usually goes a long way towards preventing unnecessary conflicts.
Regards -Zoomer
~
I really think that the fatal accident of the Boeiing 737-800 is really consists of 2 major faults i.e. Human factors or the maintenance personnel 0f the airline and the mechanical fault of the left engine as suspected the fuel pipelines maybe not tightened as instructed in the manual as Iam an aviation commercial student in Singapore and this incident is a extremely inportant task to check the aircraft specifications as required to FAA,EASA ICAO & IATA.
page: 1
AndreaAug 20th, 2007 - 17:01:30
There have been over 3000+ deaths in the last 5 years with this airline...DONT FLY WITH THEM!!!
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