TransAsia Airways Flight 222

TransAsia Airways Flight 222

The accident aircraft, B-22810, an ATR 72-500, on 18 July 2014, five days before the crash.

The accident aircraft, B-22810, an ATR 72-500, on 18 July 2014, five days before the crash.
Accident summary
Date 23 July 2014 (2014-07-23)
Summary Controlled flight into terrain; pilot error
Site Near Xixi village, Huxi, Penghu, Taiwan
23°35′06″N 119°38′20″E / 23.585°N 119.639°E / 23.585; 119.639Coordinates: 23°35′06″N 119°38′20″E / 23.585°N 119.639°E / 23.585; 119.639[1]
Passengers 54
Crew 4
Injuries (non-fatal) 15 (including 5 on the ground)
Fatalities 48
Survivors 10
Aircraft type ATR 72-500
Operator TransAsia Airways
Registration B-22810
Flight origin Kaohsiung International Airport
Destination Magong Airport

TransAsia Airways Flight 222 (GE222/TNA222) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by TransAsia Airways from Kaohsiung International Airport in Kaohsiung to Magong Airport in Magong, Penghu Island. The aircraft crashed into buildings during approach to land in bad weather at Magong Airport, Penghu Island, Taiwan, on 23 July 2014. The ATR 72-500 operating the flight was travelling from Kaohsiung International Airport with 54 passengers and four crew members on board; only 10 survived. An investigation by the Taiwanese Aviation Safety Council found that the pilots intentionally descended below the minimum descent altitude and that the Captain was overconfident of his skills.

Accident

Magong Airport
Kaohsiung International Airport
Location of the accident and departure airports

Flight 222 was scheduled to depart from Kaohsiung at 16:00 Taiwan time (08:00 UTC), but it was delayed by weather and took off at 17:43.[2]

At 18:11, the aircraft was near Magong Airport. Owing to the weather, the flight crew requested clearance to hold; they were cleared for the approach about 40 minutes later. While on a VOR approach to runway 20, the aircraft began to deviate left of the runway centreline and to lose altitude. At 19:06, the flight crew said they intended to go around, but the aircraft crashed into two houses in the township of Huxi nine seconds later.[3] 48 of the 58 people on board were killed. A fire erupted,[2] and five people on the ground were injured.[4]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was an ATR 72-500, registration B-22810, MSN 642. It first flew on 14 June 2000[5] and was delivered to TransAsia Airways on 20 July 2000.[6][7] The aircraft was powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127F engines.[8]

Passengers and crew

There were 54 passengers on board (four of whom were reported to be children) and a crew of four.[9] The captain was Lee Yi-liang (Chinese: 李義良; pinyin: Lǐ Yìliáng), aged 60, and the first officer Chiang Kuan-hsing (江冠興; Jiāng Guānxīng), 39.[10] Lee had logged 22,994 flight hours and Chiang 2,392 hours.[11]

Two French citizens, Pénélope Luternauer and Jéromine Deramond, medical students in Lille, France, [12] and 46 Taiwanese (including all crew members) died in the crash.[3][13] Among the passengers was the Taiwanese master carpenter Yeh Ken-chuang.[14]

Nationality Passengers Crew Total
 Taiwan 42 4 46
 France 2 - 2
Total 44 4 48

Aftermath

Taiwan News reported that "first suspicions hinted" the accident might be related to Typhoon Matmo,[2] which had passed over Taiwan and Penghu earlier in the day; radar images showed heavy rain over the area at the time of the crash.[15]

TransAsia Airways general manager Chooi Yee-choong (徐以聰; Xú Yǐcōng)[16] apologized for the accident in a news conference held on 23 July.[17] On 30 July, TransAsia Airways announced that they had made changes to their standard operating procedures for domestic flights, and would henceforth require that visibility at the arrival airport be 50% above the published minimum before a landing is attempted, and that the maximum holding time waiting for the weather to clear before having to divert be thirty minutes.[18] On 25 August, the airline announced compensation of NT$14.9 million for each of the 48 victims of the crash, the highest rate a Taiwanese airline has paid to crash victims since China Airlines Flight 611 in 2002.[19]

Investigation

An official investigation led by the Aviation Safety Council of Taiwan was initiated.[20][21] The aircraft's flight recorders were recovered and have been read out.[22][23] Some findings from the flight recorders were made known on 1 August 2014.[24] It was revealed that the pilots announced an abort and go-around at 7:06 p.m., during final approach. At that time, the RPM of the number 1 (left pilot side) engine dropped, while unusual sounds were recorded by the cockpit voice recorder. These sounds were considered to be consistent with a propeller churning on trees, an interpretation supported by the discovery of remnants of tree branches in one engine.[25] The release date of the final report was scheduled for October 2015.[26] It was published in January 2016.[27] The investigation found that the crew deliberately descended below the mininmum descent altitiude and that they had lost sight of the runway in a thunderstorm. Failure to execute a go-around led to a controlled flight into terrain.[28]

The final report reached the following final conclusion:

The occurrence was the result of controlled flight into terrain, that is, an airworthy aircraft under the control of the flight crew was flown unintentionally into terrain with limited awareness by the crew of the aircraft’s proximity to terrain. The crew continued the approach below the minimum descent altitude (MDA) when they were not visual with the runway environment contrary to standard operating procedures. The investigation report identified a range of contributing and other safety factors relating to the flight crew of the aircraft, TransAsia’s flight operations and safety management processes, the communication of weather information to the flight crew, coordination issues at civil/military joint-use airport, and the regulatory oversight of TransAsia by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Liu, Sherry (1 August 2014). "復興航空GE222飛航事故調查進度報告" (in Chinese). Aviation Safety Council. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "47 dead, 11 injured in Penghu plane crash: reports". Taiwan News. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  3. 1 2 Hradecky, Simon (24 July 2014). "Crash: Transasia AT72 at Makung on Jul 23rd 2014, impacted buildings on approach". The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  4. ↑ 復興班機澎湖墜機　49罹難14傷 (in Chinese). Apple Daily Taiwan. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "ASN Aircraft accident ATR 72–500 (72-212A) B-22817 Magong Airport (MZG)". aviation safety network. aviation safety network. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "B-22810 TransAsia Airways ATR 72–500 (72-212A) – cn 642". planespotters.net. planespotters.net. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  7. ↑ 復航總經理鞠躬致歉 協助家屬 (in Chinese). Central News Agency. 23 July 2014. Archived from the original on 24 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  8. ↑ "ATR 42/72 - MSN 642 - B-22810". Airfleets.net. Archived from the original on 24 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  9. ↑ "Taiwan plane crash – latest". The Daily Telegraph. 23 July 2014. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  10. ↑ Park, Madison; Jiang, Steven (24 July 2014). "Taiwan plane crash kills 48 and injures 10". CNN. Archived from the original on 24 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  11. ↑ "復興航空聲明全力協助家屬　提供洽詢專線". Taiwan Apple Daily. 23 July 2014. Archived from the original on 24 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  12. ↑ "Two Frenchwomen killed in TransAsia crash, French office confirms". Central News Agency. 24 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  13. ↑ Lee, Hsin-Yin (24 July 2014). "48 confirmed dead, 10 injured in TransAsia plane crash". Central News Agency. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  14. ↑ Shan, Shelley (2014-07-25). "Victims include master carpenter, firefighter, families". Taipei Times. Retrieved 2014-08-17.
  15. ↑ "TransAsia Airways crashes in Taiwan, at least 40 dead". USA Today. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  16. ↑ Su, Amy (14 December 2012). "TransAsia sees sales rising 30%". Taipei Times. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  17. ↑ Tsai, Angela; Wang, Shu-fen; Lee, Hsin-Yin; Tang, Pei-chun; Hou, Elaine (24 July 2014). "TransAsia issues apology over deadly crash in Penghu". Central News Agency. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  18. ↑ Lee Hsin-Yin (30 July 2014). "TransAsia sets stricter flight safety standards after crash". Focus Taiwan. Central News Agency. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  19. ↑ Su, Amy (26 August 2014). "TransAsia offers Penghu plane crash compensation". Taipei Times. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  20. ↑ Tsai, Angela; Lee, Hsin-Yin (26 July 2014). "Foreign experts arrive in Penghu for crash investigation". Central News Agency. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  21. ↑ Sherry Liu (24 July 2014). "TransAsia Airways Flight GE 222 Occurrence Initial Report". Aviation Safety Council. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  22. ↑ "138 items of data from black box downloaded". CCTV. 26 July 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  23. ↑ Tsai, Angela; Lee, Hsin-Yin (28 July 2014). "Black box readings completed, but nothing to disclose yet: council". Central News Agency. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  24. ↑ Lee, Hsin-Yin (1 August 2014). "Engine failure, flight deviation detected before TransAsia crash". Central News Agency. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  25. ↑ "Engine failure, flight deviation in GE222 crash". China Post. 2 August 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  26. ↑ Lee, Hsin-Yin (26 December 2014). "Data show crashed TransAsia plane off course when attempting landing". Central News Agency. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  27. ↑ "Pilots blamed in Penghu crash". Taipei Times. 30 January 2016. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  28. ↑ "Report: Intentional descent below MDA in thunderstorm causes ATR-72 CFIT accident in Taiwan". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 29 January 2016.

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