Posted on 05/25/2002 1:59:07 AM PDT by colette_g
Midair explosion seen by hundreds of villagers and debris spread across a wide area. Nothing wrong here.
Also I note the report says: 'China Airlines was taken over in 2000 by its first woman chief executive officer, who set out to fix its appalling image' .... DUH! Uh-huh. Yeah, sure, like Asians are the least bit impressed with female management. The woman CEO is just a puppet figurehead.
Not one word in the article about the fact that China Air is owned 100% by the Peoples' Liberation Army.
As for me, I wonder who was on the plane !!!
What I DO want to see are some side-by-side comparisons of this crash with the Rockaway crash in November. IMO, there CAN'T be just ONE Richard Reid. {;o)
You're saying that a Taiwan based airline is owned by Red China's army?
Or am I misunderstanding something here?
China Jet Broke in Sky Before Crash
Sun May 26, 6:06 AM ET
PENGHU, Taiwan (AP) - The China Airlines jet that crashed Saturday with 225 people aboard broke up into four parts in the sky before plunging into the Taiwan Strait, the chief Taiwanese crash investigator said Sunday.
Military radar provided a clear picture of the Boeing 747-200 splitting into four pieces, said Kay Yong, managing director of Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council.
"There was an in-flight breakup above the altitude of 30,000 feet. We are very positive about this," he said.
Rough seas slowed the search for bodies and debris from the jet. No survivors were found on Sunday and 78 bodies were pulled from the oily water that reeked of fuel.
Swells up to three meters 10 feet high battered the fishing boats and coast guard ships scanning the crash site north of the Taiwanese island chain of Penghu, about 30 miles off Taiwan's western coast.
Officials still did not know what caused the crash of Flight CI611, which went down Saturday afternoon about 20 minutes after taking off from Taipei. The crew did not send distress signals before the plane disappeared from radar screens.
The transcript of the pilots' conversation with the control tower was released Sunday and included no mention of any problem with the plane.
James L.S. Chang, a China Airlines vice president, declined to speculate on a possible cause of the crash, but he said it was unusual.
"At such a high altitude, 35,000 feet (10,600 meters), to have something go wrong — and the pilot didn't even have time to send a distress signal. Now, that's a big question mark," Chang said.
Near the crash site Sunday morning, the smell of fuel was thick in the air and there was a rainbow-colored glimmer on the sea from an oily slick as big as a football field.
Rescue officials said 78 bodies have been found. The passengers included 190 Taiwanese, 14 people from Macau and Hong Kong, nine Chinese citizens, one Singaporean and one Swiss citizen.
The Boeing 747-200 had been flying for 22 years, and China Airlines was to remove the jet from its fleet next month and deliver it to the small regional carrier Orient Thai Airline, which had already purchased the aircraft, China Airlines said.
China Airlines said the plane was well-maintained and had been completely overhauled last year.
Any 747 Jocks out there? Minor point, I guess, but could this plane get above 30K in 19 minutes? Even with minimum fuel for a 1 1/2 hour flight? Which reminds me - Center Fuel Tank!
Are you serious?
Investigators trying to find out why a China Airlines flight carrying 225 people crashed say they have located the plane's two black boxes on the sea bed.Investigators trying to find out why a China Airlines flight carrying 225 people crashed say they have located the plane's two black boxes on the sea bed.
It is hoped the find will help them establish what happened to the jumbo jet before it plunged into the Taiwan Strait on a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong.
With the exception of the plane's altitude, I wonder how many similarities this crash will have with TWA 800?
"The search is continuing for the plane's "black box" flight recorders. Contrary to earlier reports, they have not yet been located. "
Mystery
But he could not say why it had crashed.
The break up of flight CI 611 on Saturday had been suspected since farmers on the west coast of Taiwan, 47 miles from the offshore crash site, had picked plane debris off their fields.
That is a pretty strong westerly wind.
But the official confirmation only added to an uneasy mystery as to exactly why it broke apart.
Aviation experts have proposed several possibilities: an internal explosion, sudden cabin de-pressurisation, a mid-air collision, or even a military accident.
I wonder what they mean when they say, "military accident?" Another aircraft would have shown on radar. I would think a missile would also have shown up somewhere. All still very curious.
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