China Airlines Flight 611
Encyclopedia
China Airlines Flight 611 (CAL 611, CI 611, callsign Dynasty 611) was a regularly scheduled flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport) in Taoyuan
to Hong Kong International Airport
in Hong Kong
. On 25 May 2002, the Boeing 747-200B disintegrated in mid-air and crashed into the Taiwan Strait just 20 minutes after taking off, killing 225 people. The cause of the crash were improper repairs to the aircraft 22 years earlier.
as "Yi Ching-Fung" and "Hsieh Ya-Shiung".
About 25 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens, suggesting it had experienced an in-flight breakup at FL
350 (approximately 35,000 feet or 7 miles) near the Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait
(co-ordinates 23.98°N, 119.67°E).
The crash occurred at a time between 15:37 and 15:40; Chang Chia-juch
(張家祝, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhāng Jiāzhù), the Republic of China (ROC) Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications, said that two Cathay Pacific
aircraft in the area received B-18255's emergency location-indicator signals. All 19 crew members and all 206 passengers died.
. All of the passengers on board were ethnic Chinese
except the passenger from Switzerland. 114 of the passengers were members of a group tour to Hong Kong or PRChina organized by five travel agencies.
The Republic of China government kept statistics of the passengers who were recovered.
The remains of 175 of the 206 passengers aboard were recovered and identified. The first 82 bodies, those of 76 passengers and 6 cabin crew, were found floating on the surface of the ocean, and were recovered by fishing vessels, the Coast Guard, and military vessels.
Autopsies were conducted on three flight crew members, while ten bodies and some human remains were X-ray
ed.
Most of the recovered passengers in the rear of the jet (Zones D through E) were found naked, since their clothes were torn off due to the forces of explosive decompression
. Most of the recovered passengers in the front of the jet (Zones A through C) still had clothes on.
Of the recovered passengers, 66 were fully clad, 25 were partially clad and 50 were completely naked. Two of the fully clad passengers were travelling with infants on their laps; the clothing situation of the infants was not stated.
Some passengers were found floating, while some remained strapped in their seats. Of the recovered passengers, 54 did not float and were not seated, 7 did not float and were still seated, 81 floated and did not decompose (1 held an infant; the infant's condition is not stated) while 25 floated and decomposed (1 held an infant; the infant's condition is not stated). 92% of the passengers initially found floating on the ocean surface had assigned seats located in and between Rows 42 and 57 (Zone E).
Some passengers had injuries predominantly on one side per body. Of these passengers, 10 sustained injuries predominantly on their left side (1 held an infant; the infant's condition is not stated) while 10 sustained injuries predominantly on their right side. Fifty-one sustained tibia
and/or fibula bone fracture
s. Some passengers sustained back and/or hand abrasions. Of these, 27 sustained only hand abrasions, 10 sustained only back abrasions and 16 sustained back and hand abrasions.
aircraft spotted a crashed airliner 20 nautical miles (37 km) northeast of Makung
. Oil slicks were also spotted at 17:05; the first body was found at 18:10.
Searchers recovered 15% of the wreckage, including part of the cockpit, and found no signs of burns, explosives or gunshots.
There was no distress signal or communication sent out prior to the crash. Radar data suggests that the aircraft broke into four pieces while at FL
350. This theory is supported, by the fact that articles that would have been found inside the aircraft, were found up to 80 miles (128.7 km) from the crash site in villages in central Taiwan. The items included magazines, documents, luggage, photographs, Taiwan dollars, and a China Airlines-embossed, blood-stained pillow case.
The flight data recorder
from Flight 611 shows that the plane began gaining altitude at a significantly faster rate in the 27 seconds before the plane broke apart, although the extra gain in altitude was well within the plane's design limits. The plane was supposed to be leveling off then as it approached its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Shortly before the breakup, one of the aircraft's four engines began providing slightly less thrust. Coincidentally, the engine was the only one recovered from the sea floor. Pieces of the aircraft were found in the ocean and on Taiwan, including in the city of Changhua.
The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China co-operated in the recovery of the aircraft; the People's Republic of China allowed personnel from Taiwan to search for bodies and aircraft fragments in those parts of the Taiwan Strait
controlled by the People's Republic of China.
China Airlines requested relatives to submit blood
samples for DNA testing at the Criminal Investigation Bureau of National Police Administration and two other locations.
The United Daily News
stated that some relatives of passengers described the existence of this flight to Hong Kong as being "unnecessary". They said this because most of the passengers intended to arrive in Mainland China
, but because of a lack of direct air links between Taiwan and Mainland China, the travellers had to fly via Hong Kong; the relatives advocated the opening of direct air links between Taiwan and Mainland China.
caused by inadequate maintenance after a previous incident. The report indicated that on 7 February 1980, the accident aircraft suffered damage from a tailstrike
accident while landing in Hong Kong. The aircraft was then ferried back to Taiwan on the same day de-pressurized, and a temporary repair done the day after. A permanent repair was conducted by a team from China Airlines from 23 May through 26 May 1980. However, the permanent repair of the tail strike was not carried out in accordance with the Boeing Structural Repair Manual (SRM). The area of damaged skin in Section 46 was not removed (trimmed) and the repair doubler plate that was supposed to cover in excess of 30% of the damaged area did not extend beyond the entire damaged area enough to restore the overall structural strength. Consequently, after repeated cycles of depressurization and pressurization during flight, the weakened hull gradually started to crack and finally broke open in mid-flight on 25 May 2002, exactly 22 years to the day after the faulty repair was made upon the damaged tail. An explosive decompression
of the aircraft occurred once the crack opened up, causing the complete disintegration of the aircraft in mid-air. This was not the first time, though, that an aircraft had crashed because of a faulty repair following a tailstrike. On 12 August 1985 (17 years earlier), Japan Airlines Flight 123
crashed after losing its tail and hydraulic systems. That crash had been attributed to a faulty repair to the rear pressure bulkhead, which had been damaged in 1978 in a tailstrike
incident.
China Airlines disputed much of the report, stating that investigators did not find the pieces of the aircraft that would prove the contents of the investigation report.
One piece of evidence of the metal fatigue is contained in pictures that were taken during an inspection of the plane years before the disaster. In the pictures, there are visible brown stains of nicotine
around the doubler plate. This nicotine was deposited by smoke from the cigarettes of people who were smoking about seven years before the disaster (smoking was allowed in a pressurized plane at that time). The doubler plate had a brown nicotine stain all the way around it that could have been detected visually by any of the engineers when they inspected the plane. The stain would have suggested that there might be a crack caused by metal fatigue
behind the doubler plate, as the nicotine slowly seeped out due to pressure that built up when the plane reached its cruising altitude. The stains were apparently not noticed and no correction was made to the doubler plate, which eventually caused the plane to disintegrate in mid air.
, 607, 609, 613, 615, 617, and 803.
passenger aircraft left in the China Airlines fleet at the time. It was delivered to the airline in 1979, and had logged 64,810 hours of flight time. Prior to the crash China Airlines had sold B-18255 to Orient Thai Airlines
for US$
1.45 million. The accident flight was the aircraft's penultimate flight for China Airlines as it was scheduled to be delivered to Orient Thai Airlines after its return flight from Hong Kong to Taipei. The contract to sell the aircraft was voided after the crash.
The remaining four 747-200 freighters in China Airlines fleet were grounded immediately by the ROC's Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) after the crash. The airline returned the jets to service a few days later after maintenance checks.
show Mayday
(known as Air Emergency in the US, Mayday in Ireland and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and the rest of world). The episode is entitled "Scratching the Surface".
Taoyuan County (Taiwan)
Taoyuan County is a county of the Republic of China , located in the northwestern part of the island, contiguous with New Taipei City, Hsinchu County, and Yilan County. Taoyuan City is located in this county and serves as the seat of Taoyuan County...
to Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong International Airport is the main airport in Hong Kong. It is colloquially known as Chek Lap Kok Airport , being built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation, and also to distinguish it from its predecessor, the closed Kai Tak Airport.The airport opened for commercial...
in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. On 25 May 2002, the Boeing 747-200B disintegrated in mid-air and crashed into the Taiwan Strait just 20 minutes after taking off, killing 225 people. The cause of the crash were improper repairs to the aircraft 22 years earlier.
Flight and disaster
The flight on 25 May 2002 took off at 14:50 local time and was expected to arrive at Hong Kong at 16:28. The flight crew consisted of Captain Ching-Fong Yi (易清豐, Hanyu Pinyin: Yì Qīngfēng), First Officer Yea Shyong Shieh (謝亞雄, Hanyu Pinyin: Xiè Yàxióng), and Flight Engineer Sen Kuo Chao (趙盛國, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhào Shèngguó). The names of the pilot and first officer, respectively, are alternatively romanizedRomanization
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
as "Yi Ching-Fung" and "Hsieh Ya-Shiung".
About 25 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens, suggesting it had experienced an in-flight breakup at FL
Flight level
A Flight Level is a standard nominal altitude of an aircraft, in hundreds of feet. This altitude is calculated from the International standard pressure datum of 1013.25 hPa , the average sea-level pressure, and therefore is not necessarily the same as the aircraft's true altitude either...
350 (approximately 35,000 feet or 7 miles) near the Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait
Taiwan Strait
The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait, formerly known as the Black Ditch, is a 180-km-wide strait separating Mainland China and Taiwan. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to East China Sea to the northeast...
(co-ordinates 23.98°N, 119.67°E).
The crash occurred at a time between 15:37 and 15:40; Chang Chia-juch
Chang Chia-juch
Chang Chia-juch served as the Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications in the Republic of China.-References:...
(張家祝, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhāng Jiāzhù), the Republic of China (ROC) Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications, said that two Cathay Pacific
Cathay Pacific
Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport, although the airline's registered office is on the 33rd floor of One Pacific Place...
aircraft in the area received B-18255's emergency location-indicator signals. All 19 crew members and all 206 passengers died.
Passengers
The passengers included a former legislator and two reporters from the United Daily NewsUnited Daily News
The United Daily News is a newspaper published in the Republic of China in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. It is one of the three biggest newspapers in Taiwan, the other two being the China Times and the Liberty Times.-History:...
. All of the passengers on board were ethnic Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
except the passenger from Switzerland. 114 of the passengers were members of a group tour to Hong Kong or PRChina organized by five travel agencies.
Nationalities of the passengers
| Nationality | |Passengers | |Crew | |Total |
|---|---|---|---|
 Mainland China |
9 | 0 | 9 |
| 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |
 Republic of China |
190 | 19 | 209 |
| Total | 206 | 19 | 225 |
Recovery and identification of remains
The remains of 175 of the 206 passengers aboard were recovered and identified. The first 82 bodies, those of 76 passengers and 6 cabin crew, were found floating on the surface of the ocean, and were recovered by fishing vessels, the Coast Guard, and military vessels.
Autopsies were conducted on three flight crew members, while ten bodies and some human remains were X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
ed.
Most of the recovered passengers in the rear of the jet (Zones D through E) were found naked, since their clothes were torn off due to the forces of explosive decompression
Explosive decompression
Uncontrolled decompression refers to an unplanned drop in the pressure of a sealed system, such as an aircraft cabin and typically results from human error, material fatigue, engineering failure or impact causing a pressure vessel to vent into its lower-pressure surroundings or fail to pressurize...
. Most of the recovered passengers in the front of the jet (Zones A through C) still had clothes on.
Of the recovered passengers, 66 were fully clad, 25 were partially clad and 50 were completely naked. Two of the fully clad passengers were travelling with infants on their laps; the clothing situation of the infants was not stated.
Some passengers were found floating, while some remained strapped in their seats. Of the recovered passengers, 54 did not float and were not seated, 7 did not float and were still seated, 81 floated and did not decompose (1 held an infant; the infant's condition is not stated) while 25 floated and decomposed (1 held an infant; the infant's condition is not stated). 92% of the passengers initially found floating on the ocean surface had assigned seats located in and between Rows 42 and 57 (Zone E).
Some passengers had injuries predominantly on one side per body. Of these passengers, 10 sustained injuries predominantly on their left side (1 held an infant; the infant's condition is not stated) while 10 sustained injuries predominantly on their right side. Fifty-one sustained tibia
Tibia
The tibia , shinbone, or shankbone is the larger and stronger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates , and connects the knee with the ankle bones....
and/or fibula bone fracture
Fracture
A fracture is the separation of an object or material into two, or more, pieces under the action of stress.The word fracture is often applied to bones of living creatures , or to crystals or crystalline materials, such as gemstones or metal...
s. Some passengers sustained back and/or hand abrasions. Of these, 27 sustained only hand abrasions, 10 sustained only back abrasions and 16 sustained back and hand abrasions.
Search, recovery and investigation
At 17:05, a military C-130C-130 Hercules
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport...
aircraft spotted a crashed airliner 20 nautical miles (37 km) northeast of Makung
Makung
Makung is the county seat of Penghu, in Taiwan Province, Taiwan . Makung is on the western part of the main Penghu Island....
. Oil slicks were also spotted at 17:05; the first body was found at 18:10.
Searchers recovered 15% of the wreckage, including part of the cockpit, and found no signs of burns, explosives or gunshots.
There was no distress signal or communication sent out prior to the crash. Radar data suggests that the aircraft broke into four pieces while at FL
Flight level
A Flight Level is a standard nominal altitude of an aircraft, in hundreds of feet. This altitude is calculated from the International standard pressure datum of 1013.25 hPa , the average sea-level pressure, and therefore is not necessarily the same as the aircraft's true altitude either...
350. This theory is supported, by the fact that articles that would have been found inside the aircraft, were found up to 80 miles (128.7 km) from the crash site in villages in central Taiwan. The items included magazines, documents, luggage, photographs, Taiwan dollars, and a China Airlines-embossed, blood-stained pillow case.
The flight data recorder
Flight data recorder
A flight data recorder is an electronic device employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters...
from Flight 611 shows that the plane began gaining altitude at a significantly faster rate in the 27 seconds before the plane broke apart, although the extra gain in altitude was well within the plane's design limits. The plane was supposed to be leveling off then as it approached its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Shortly before the breakup, one of the aircraft's four engines began providing slightly less thrust. Coincidentally, the engine was the only one recovered from the sea floor. Pieces of the aircraft were found in the ocean and on Taiwan, including in the city of Changhua.
The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China co-operated in the recovery of the aircraft; the People's Republic of China allowed personnel from Taiwan to search for bodies and aircraft fragments in those parts of the Taiwan Strait
Taiwan Strait
The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait, formerly known as the Black Ditch, is a 180-km-wide strait separating Mainland China and Taiwan. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to East China Sea to the northeast...
controlled by the People's Republic of China.
China Airlines requested relatives to submit blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
samples for DNA testing at the Criminal Investigation Bureau of National Police Administration and two other locations.
The United Daily News
United Daily News
The United Daily News is a newspaper published in the Republic of China in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. It is one of the three biggest newspapers in Taiwan, the other two being the China Times and the Liberty Times.-History:...
stated that some relatives of passengers described the existence of this flight to Hong Kong as being "unnecessary". They said this because most of the passengers intended to arrive in Mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
, but because of a lack of direct air links between Taiwan and Mainland China, the travellers had to fly via Hong Kong; the relatives advocated the opening of direct air links between Taiwan and Mainland China.
Metal fatigue
The final investigation report found that the accident was the result of metal fatigueFatigue (material)
'In materials science, fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. The nominal maximum stress values are less than the ultimate tensile stress limit, and may be below the yield stress limit of the material.Fatigue occurs...
caused by inadequate maintenance after a previous incident. The report indicated that on 7 February 1980, the accident aircraft suffered damage from a tailstrike
Tailstrike
Tailstrike is an aviation term that describes an event in which the rear end of an aircraft touches the runway. This can happen during takeoff of a fixed-wing aircraft if the pilot pulls up too rapidly, leading to the rear end of the fuselage touching the runway. It can also occur during landing...
accident while landing in Hong Kong. The aircraft was then ferried back to Taiwan on the same day de-pressurized, and a temporary repair done the day after. A permanent repair was conducted by a team from China Airlines from 23 May through 26 May 1980. However, the permanent repair of the tail strike was not carried out in accordance with the Boeing Structural Repair Manual (SRM). The area of damaged skin in Section 46 was not removed (trimmed) and the repair doubler plate that was supposed to cover in excess of 30% of the damaged area did not extend beyond the entire damaged area enough to restore the overall structural strength. Consequently, after repeated cycles of depressurization and pressurization during flight, the weakened hull gradually started to crack and finally broke open in mid-flight on 25 May 2002, exactly 22 years to the day after the faulty repair was made upon the damaged tail. An explosive decompression
Explosive decompression
Uncontrolled decompression refers to an unplanned drop in the pressure of a sealed system, such as an aircraft cabin and typically results from human error, material fatigue, engineering failure or impact causing a pressure vessel to vent into its lower-pressure surroundings or fail to pressurize...
of the aircraft occurred once the crack opened up, causing the complete disintegration of the aircraft in mid-air. This was not the first time, though, that an aircraft had crashed because of a faulty repair following a tailstrike. On 12 August 1985 (17 years earlier), Japan Airlines Flight 123
Japan Airlines Flight 123
Japan Airlines Flight 123 was a Japan Airlines domestic flight from Tokyo International Airport to Osaka International Airport on August 12, 1985. The Boeing 747-146SR that made this route, registered , suffered mechanical failures 12 minutes into the flight and 32 minutes later crashed into two...
crashed after losing its tail and hydraulic systems. That crash had been attributed to a faulty repair to the rear pressure bulkhead, which had been damaged in 1978 in a tailstrike
Tailstrike
Tailstrike is an aviation term that describes an event in which the rear end of an aircraft touches the runway. This can happen during takeoff of a fixed-wing aircraft if the pilot pulls up too rapidly, leading to the rear end of the fuselage touching the runway. It can also occur during landing...
incident.
China Airlines disputed much of the report, stating that investigators did not find the pieces of the aircraft that would prove the contents of the investigation report.
One piece of evidence of the metal fatigue is contained in pictures that were taken during an inspection of the plane years before the disaster. In the pictures, there are visible brown stains of nicotine
Nicotine
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
around the doubler plate. This nicotine was deposited by smoke from the cigarettes of people who were smoking about seven years before the disaster (smoking was allowed in a pressurized plane at that time). The doubler plate had a brown nicotine stain all the way around it that could have been detected visually by any of the engineers when they inspected the plane. The stain would have suggested that there might be a crack caused by metal fatigue
Metal Fatigue
Metal Fatigue , is a futuristic science fiction, real-time strategy computer game developed by Zono Incorporated and published by Psygnosis and TalonSoft .-Plot:...
behind the doubler plate, as the nicotine slowly seeped out due to pressure that built up when the plane reached its cruising altitude. The stains were apparently not noticed and no correction was made to the doubler plate, which eventually caused the plane to disintegrate in mid air.
Flight number
It is a common practice to retire flight numbers following loss of aircraft and Flight 611 no longer exists. Shortly after the accident, China Airlines changed the flight number to 619, which now serves the Taipei-Hong Kong route along with existing flights 601, 603, 605China Airlines Flight 605
China Airlines Flight 605 was a daily non-stop flight departing from Taipei at 6:30 a.m. and arriving at Kai Tak Airport at 7:00 a.m. local time. The accident occurred on November 4, 1993...
, 607, 609, 613, 615, 617, and 803.
Aircraft history
The aircraft (originally registered as B-1866) involved, MSN 21843, was the only Boeing 747–200Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...
passenger aircraft left in the China Airlines fleet at the time. It was delivered to the airline in 1979, and had logged 64,810 hours of flight time. Prior to the crash China Airlines had sold B-18255 to Orient Thai Airlines
Orient Thai Airlines
Orient Thai Airlines Co., Ltd. is an airline with its head office in Khlong Toei, Bangkok, Thailand. It operates charter and scheduled services in Southeast Asia. Its main base is Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok...
for US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1.45 million. The accident flight was the aircraft's penultimate flight for China Airlines as it was scheduled to be delivered to Orient Thai Airlines after its return flight from Hong Kong to Taipei. The contract to sell the aircraft was voided after the crash.
The remaining four 747-200 freighters in China Airlines fleet were grounded immediately by the ROC's Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) after the crash. The airline returned the jets to service a few days later after maintenance checks.
Dramatization
The story of the disaster was featured on the seventh season of Canadian National Geographic ChannelNational Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
show Mayday
Mayday (TV series)
Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...
(known as Air Emergency in the US, Mayday in Ireland and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and the rest of world). The episode is entitled "Scratching the Surface".
See also
- Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
- Air safety
- Japan Airlines Flight 123Japan Airlines Flight 123Japan Airlines Flight 123 was a Japan Airlines domestic flight from Tokyo International Airport to Osaka International Airport on August 12, 1985. The Boeing 747-146SR that made this route, registered , suffered mechanical failures 12 minutes into the flight and 32 minutes later crashed into two...
- TWA Flight 800TWA Flight 800Trans World Airlines Flight 800 , a Boeing 747-131, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 20:31 EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff, killing all 230 persons on board. At the time, it was the second-deadliest U.S...
- Aloha Airlines Flight 243Aloha Airlines Flight 243Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was a scheduled Aloha Airlines flight between Hilo and Honolulu in Hawaii. On April 28, 1988, a Boeing 737-200 serving the flight suffered extensive damage after an explosive decompression in flight, but was able to land safely at Kahului Airport on Maui. The only...
External links
Official investigation reports
China Airlines
Media
- "Cracks blamed for 2002 China Airlines crash", CBC News, 25 February 2005
- Crashed China Airlines Plane Said to Break up in Sky, People's DailyPeople's DailyThe People's Daily is a daily newspaper in the People's Republic of China. The paper is an organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China , published worldwide with a circulation of 3 to 4 million. In addition to its main Chinese-language edition, it has editions in English,...
- "CAL 747 crashes with 225 aboard," Taipei TimesTaipei TimesThe Taipei Times is one of the three major English-language newspapers in the Republic of China the other two being the Taiwan News and The China Post...
- "China Airlines back in the dock," BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
- Between the Shores of Life and Death
- Set the Kite Free
- Taiwan says crashed China Air jet missed check-ups
