TransAsia pilot: 'Mayday, mayday, engine flameout'
A TransAsia Airways flight crashed into a Taipei river shortly after takeoff Wednesday with 58 passengers on board. Dashcam footage from cars on a bridge beside the river captured the plane going down. Dozens were either killed or missing. VPCDivers search the Keelung river for the remains of a TransAsia Airways plane that crashed in Taipei on Feb. 5.(Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP/Getty Images)BEIJING — The pilot of TransAsia Airways Flight 235 called out "mayday, mayday, engine flameout" moments before the propjet plane banked sharply and crashed into a river, Taiwan aviation officials said ThursdayThe audio clip of the exchange between the control tower and pilot of the doomed flight was confirmed by Taiwan's Civil Aeronautical Administration as rescue workers continued searching for 11 missing passengers Thursday.The plane crashed in Taipei shortly after takeoff Wednesday, leaving at least 32 people dead. Fifteen people survived the flight with 58 passengers and crew on board that had been traveling to the island of Kinmen, near mainland China.After both black box flight recorders were recovered, an initial investigation revealed engine failure as the possible cause, Taiwan's state news agency CNA reported."Engine flameout" refers to flames being extinguished in the combustion chamber of the engine, so that it shuts down and no longer drives the propeller. Causes could include a lack of fuel or being struck by volcanic ash, a bird or some other object.The fast-descending plane was captured on car dashcams banking sharply then clipping an elevated highway before crashing into the Keelung River.The flight had 31 Chinese tourists on board and investigators from China will join the crash probe, the first such collaboration across the Taiwan Strait, CNA reported.Beside the river Thursday dozens of weeping relatives called out the names of the dead while Buddhist monks chanted and waved the victims' clothes in front of the wreckage as part of a religious ritual, AFP reported.The recovery efforts of the plane were hampered by "zero visibility" and cold water temperatures that forced divers to work in one-hour shifts, said diver Cheng Ying-chih. In addition, the plane had broken into numerous pieces."We're looking at a very tough search and rescue job," Cheng told reporters gathered on the river bank.Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou visited relatives of the dead at a Taipei funeral house and met survivors in city hospitals."This kind of air safety incident not only wrecks countless happy families but also affects trust in our tourism climate among tourists from outside Taiwan," Ma's office said in a statement on the visits, a reference to the 31 mainland Chinese passengers. "We must undergo this bitter experience and make all-out improvements."Relatives of the Chinese nationals on the flight traveled to Taipei on Thursday from Xiamen, a coastal city close to Kinmen. Three Chinese tourists survived the crash, and the remainder were either confirmed dead or still missing.The dead include tour guide Wang Qinghuo, who was to marry his fiancée Sunday, the Xiamen Daily newspaper reported.Amid the tragedies, new details emerged Thursday of survivors' lucky escapes, and many praised pilot Liao Chien-tsung for steering the malfunctioning plane away from apartment blocks and other buildings in Taipei's city center.Taipei's newly elected mayor, Ko Wen-je, said he was grateful to the plane's captain for his efforts to reduce casualties and damage that could have been far higher had the plane crashed into buildings or major infrastructure."We really have to thank that pilot," Ko said. "He really tried his hardest."Flight attendant Huang Jing-ya, likely the only member of the five-member crew to survive, crawled out of the back of the plane. "I thought I was going to die," she told the United Daily newspaper.Huang, 26, cheated death a second time, the paper reported, as only a shift change with a colleague prevented her from working on the TransAsia Airways flight that crashed on Penghu Island in bad weather in July, killing all but 10 of the 58 people on board.A family of three was fortunate to be sitting close to the split in the fuselage as the plane lay mostly submerged in the river. Lin Ming-wei released his own safety belt and that of his wife before rescuing their 2-year-old son from the water and performing CPR on the child, who was expected to leave intensive care Thursday.Lin had moved the family from row 17 to empty seats in row 16 for no particular reason, his brother Lin Ming-yu told United Daily. A friend of Lin's wife earlier told the paper that Lin had felt uncomfortable with the sound of the left wing before takeoff and requested a move from seats on the left side of the turboprop plane to ones closer to the back, on the right side.The plane crashed on its left side.Passenger Huang Chin-shun, 72, told broadcaster ETTV he sensed a problem soon after takeoff. "I thought something's wrong with the engine because I always take this flight," he said from his hospital bed."I don't blame the airline — it's fate. I will take their planes again in the future," said Huang, who had survived both a shipwreck and a plane crash in his youth.Contributing: The Associated PressHack attack: 80 million at risk in Anthem breachFeb 05, 2015
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น