On average, 2.5 billion people fly on airplanes every year, according to Airport Watch UK. The majority of flights go off without a hitch and the passengers reach their intended destination. Unfortunately, this was not the case for TransAsia Airways flight GE235. On Wednesday, February 4, 2015, flight GE235 took off from Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei and headed for Kinmen, an archipelago of islands near the coast of the Republic of China. Problems arose shortly after takeoff around 4 PM. Four minutes in to the flight, the plane hit a highway bridge. The pilot announced, “mayday, mayday, engine flameout” seconds before the plane crashed into the Keelung River. The crash occurred three miles away from Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport. Dashcam footage captured the tragic scene.
The plane was less than a year old and completed a safety check on January 26, 2015. The twin-engine propjet had fifty-three passengers and five crew members on board. The route from Taipei to Kinmen is popular for tourists and business travelers. The majority of the passengers on the flight were tourists from China. In fact, there were two tour groups on board. Another passenger included a man who originally planned to return to his home in Xiamen, China for his wedding on Sunday. He did not survive the crash. A minorly injured passenger heard that his wife and one-year old baby were staying in separate hospitals and therefore, rode his bike to different hospitals in order to find them.
The pilot had nearly 5,000 hours of flying experience. Some argue that the pilot should be commended for reducing additional casualties since he flew the plane into the river instead of into housing units and schools. The plane clipped a taxi and injured two people. Fortunately, they are currently in stable condition.
The Ministry of National Defense in Taiwan sent one-hundred and sixty-five people plus eight boats to the scene to rescue the passengers. Once survivors were saved on rubber rafts, a crane lifted the French-built plane from the river. The crew was also able to recover the black box. Data suggests that the pilots lost power in one engine due to a “flame out” and decided to shut down another engine. They tried to restart the engines, but the plane crashed within 72 seconds. As of February 6, fifteen people survived and at least thirty-five other people died.
Unfortunately, this is the second TransAsia flight to crash in the past year. In July 2014, an ATR 72 plane crashed while landing on the island of Penghu, an archipelago of islands between mainland China and Taiwan. Unlike flight GE235, this flight experienced bad weather due to Typhoon Matmo. The torrential downpour and strong winds made it difficult to land, resulting in the death of forty-eight people. The crash in Penghu was the first deadly aviation incident in Taiwan in the past twelve years, however, the crash of multiple flights in a single year raises safety concerns for TransAsia. Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council announced that Chinese officials will investigate the incident. In addition, Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration will inspect all ATR 72 airplanes before they are able to fly again.
Audrey Do is a Staff Writer for Pulse Magazine.