Plane
crash on Penghu kills dozens
Thu, Jul 24, 2014 -
Page 1 (TAIPEI
TIMES)
By Shelley Shan and
Jake Chung / Staff reporter and staff writer, with CNA
‘CHAOTIC’:The crew of the TransAsia Airways plane had
requested a ‘go-around’ as it tried to land at the Magong Airport
before the tower lost contact with it
A TransAsia Airways (復興航空) plane crashed on Penghu
yesterday, killing at least 47 people, the Civil Aeronautics Administration
(CAA) said last night.
The flight from Greater
Kaohsiung crashed near the Magong Airport’s
runway with 54 passengers and four crew on board, the agency said.
Minister of
Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said that 47 people were
confirmed dead and 11 injured.
According to the CAA,
the 70-seat turboprop ATR72 model plane carried 54 passengers and four crew.
TransAsia Flight GE222
had been scheduled to depart Greater Kaohsiung at 4pm yesterday. However,
because of Typhoon Matmo it was delayed, not departing until 5:43pm.
CAA Director General
Jean Shen (沈啟) said air traffic control
personnel received the request from the flight for a go-around at the Magong
Airport at 7:06pm, but they lost track of the flight afterward.
“It’s chaotic on the
scene,” Reuters quoted Shen as saying.
The plane made a forced
landing in Sisi Village (西溪), just
outside the airport.
Several buildings on the
ground were set on fire by the crash, but no one on the ground was injured,
local officials said.
"A few empty
apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no one was inside
at the time and the fire was extinguished," said Hsi Wen-guang, a
spokesman for the Penghu County Government Fire Bureau.
About 100 firefighters
were sent to the scene, besides 152 military personnel and 255 police, he added.
CAA information said the
pilot, Lee Yi-liang (李義良), 60,
has 15 years of experience in flying civilian aircraft.
The co-pilot was
identified as 39-year-old Chiang Kuan-hsing (江冠興).
Witnesses have said that
there was heavy rain at the time. However, the CAA said that the visual range
was 800 feet (243.8m),
which was adequate for landing.
The agency said that it
will dispatch officials to Penghu today to help with the
investigation into the cause of the crash, but the investigation will be led by
the Aviation Safety Council.
Penghu County Fire
Department Director-General Hong Yung-peng (洪永澎) said the airplane tried to land at the airport, but had pulled up to
make another try because the heavy rain was hampering the pilot’s vision.
Executive Yuan spokesman
Sun Lih-chuyn (孫立群) said Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) had ordered the Ministry of
Transportation and Communications to report on the situation as soon as
possible.
Structure of the Lead：
WHO-TransAsia Airways
WHEN-Thu, Jul 23, 2014
WHAT-crashed in Penghu
WHY-Typhoon Matmo
WHERE-Penghu
How-Not
mention
Keywords：
1. the Civil
Aeronautics Administration：民航局
2. confirmed：已確定的
3. depart：出發
4. personnel：人員
5. adjacent：鄰近的
6. extinguished：撲滅
7. adequate：足夠的
8. hamper：阻礙了
In this year,there are a lot of airplane crash happened such as Malaysia airplane MH17 and TransAsia Airways plane. As a result, I suppose that many people will be afraid of taking a plane because of them.Nonetheless, I hope that there would no accidents happen again.
回覆刪除Because of many plane crashes in this year, more and more people are afraid of taking the plane.I think that the airport should be shut down when the typhoon is coming.
回覆刪除