[MidWest]

Yesterday a plane in Taiwan crashed into the Taipei river killing 32 passengers on-board.

http://news.yahoo.com/taiwanese-plane-53...16793.html

Quote:

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — From the start of the flight in Taiwan's capital, survivor Huang Jin-sun suspected trouble.

"There was some sound next to me. It did not feel right shortly after takeoff. The engine did not feel right," the 72-year-old man told ETTV television Thursday from his hospital bed.


Huang was one of 15 people who survived when the TransAsia Airways turboprop carrying 58 people crashed Wednesday into a river minutes after taking off in Taipei. At least 32 people died and 11 are missing.

Moments before the plane banked sharply and crashed, one of its pilots told the control tower, "Mayday, mayday, engine flameout," according to an aviation official who asked not to be identified.

"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. "Mayday" is an international distress call.

The airline and the Taiwan Civil Aeronautical Administration have declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, the latest in a series of disasters befalling Asian airlines.


The ATR 72-600 plane, less than a year old, had one of its engines replaced by Pratt & Whitney Canada last April before it went into service because of a glitch with the original engine, the airline said.

The plane's black boxes were recovered overnight.

Video images of Flight 235's final moments in the air captured on car dashboard cameras appear to show the left engine's propeller at standstill as the aircraft turned sharply, its wings becoming vertical and clipping a highway bridge before plunging into the Keelung River in Taipei.

Huang said he helped four passengers unbuckle their seatbelts after the plane crashed and began sinking in the water.

"I saw others were drowning," he said. "If I did not move quickly enough to help them, soon they would be dead."

Also among the survivors was a family of three, including a 2-year-old boy whose heart stopped beating after three minutes under water. He recovered after receiving CPR, his uncle Lin Ming-yi told reporters.

The pilots' actions in the flight's final moments have led to speculation that they attempted to avoid high-rise buildings by following the line of the river and then banked sharply in an attempt to bring it down in the water rather than crash on land.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je praised pilot Liao Chien-tsung as a hero for having avoided crashing into buildings or major infrastructure.

"We really have to thank that pilot," Ko said. "He really tried his hardest."

Divers are searching the river for the remaining 11 people on board, including the two pilots.

About a dozen relatives of Taiwanese victims on the flight performed traditional mourning rituals on the riverbank on Thursday. Accompanied by Buddhist monks ringing brass bells, they bowed toward the river and held aloft cloth inscriptions tied to pieces of bamboo meant to guide the spirits of the dead to rest.

Also Thursday, relatives of some of the 31 passengers from mainland China reached Taipei on a charter flight.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou visited two Taipei hospitals Thursday to check on the injured and stopped by a morgue to comfort relatives, his office said.

The ATR 72-600 is the most modern version of the plane manufactured by ATR, a joint venture between European aircraft giant Airbus and Italian aerospace company Alenia Aermacchi. About 1,200 of the planes are currently in use worldwide.

TransAsia Airways is Taiwan's third biggest airline by fleet size after China Airlines and Eva Air. The pilot had 4,900 hours of flying experience, said Lin Chih-ming of the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

A team from ATR was being sent to Taiwan to investigate

Video was caught on tape

[KeepMovingForward]

Pretty tragic, gotta give the pilot credit though, as indicated in the article, for trying to land in water instead of buildings.

That footage is incredible though.

[MidWest]

Damn, they took down the video

[Laner]

I flew out of Taipei two hours before this. It happened while we were in the air, and as soon as we landed and people turned on their phones the plane erupted in anxiety.

The pilot is a hero. Imagine he would have crashed into those apartments instead of threading through them sideways? Intentional or not (his engine flamed out) it still saved the passengers lives and those who lived in the apartments and on the street.

Crazy footage. I wonder why Taipei has had so many flight disasters in the past?

[FlyBoy]

He misidentified, and failed to verify the dead engine, leading him to shut the good one instead .... Game Over

[speakeasy]

I've been a passenger aboard that aircraft type before. It's always a sickening feeling seeing that because you can picture yourself being on that just having a normal day going somewhere and few minutes later you're covered in jet fuel and incinerating like that executed Jordanian pilot. :-(

[CelMasc]

Scary stuff. After flying a few days before this happened, it drove me to look up airplane crash statistics. Where the plane is flying from absolutely matters. Much more likely to happen in Asia than in North America. Air Canada, for example, has had 0 fatal crashes.

As for why this is, I'm not entirely sure.

[speakeasy]

(02-06-2015 01:04 PM)CelMasc Wrote:  

Scary stuff. After flying a few days before this happened, it drove me to look up airplane crash statistics. Where the plane is flying from absolutely matters. Much more likely to happen in Asia than in North America. Air Canada, for example, has had 0 fatal crashes.

As for why this is, I'm not entirely sure.

Because Asians can't see!

Nah but seriously. Probably a toxic combination of poor maintenance and being in a stormy equatorial region where weather is frequently a problem.

[aSimpNamedBrokeback]

(02-06-2015 12:16 PM)Laner Wrote:  

The pilot is a hero. Imagine he would have crashed into those apartments instead of threading through them sideways?

Looks like the plane stalled after he passed the buildings, not sure there was much threading going on.

[Professor Fox]

Quote:

On Feb 6th 2015 Taiwan's ASC reported that the investigation so far determined from flight data and cockpit voice recorders: the aircraft received takeoff clearance at 10:51L, in the initial climb the aircraft was handed off to departure at 10:52:33L. At 10:52:38L at about 1200 feet MSL, 37 seconds after becoming airborne, a master warning activated related to the failure of the right hand engine, at 10:52:43L the left hand engine was throttled back and at 10:53:00L the crew began to discuss engine #1 had stalled. At 10:53:06L the right hand engine (engine #2) auto-feathered. At 10:53:12L a first stall warning occured and ceased at 10:53:18L. At 10:53:19L the crew discussed that engine #1 had already feathered, the fuel supply had already been cut to the engine and decided to attempt a restart of engine #1. Two seconds later another stall warning activated. At 10:53:34L the crew radioed "Mayday! Mayday! Engine flame out!", multiple attempts to restart the engines followed to no avail. At 10:54:34L a second master warning activated, 0.4 seconds later both recorders stopped recording.

Later the day Feb 6th 2015 the ASC also released an English version of the initial release detailing further that when the first master warning activated associated with the right hand engine the crew "called it out", then the left hand engine thrust lever was progressively retarded to flight idle. At 10:53:24L the condition lever was set to fuel shut off position resulting in the shut down of the left hand engine. Following several call outs to restart the left hand engine the parameters suggest the left hand engine was restarted at 10:54:20L, however, at 10:54:34L another master warning sounded, the CVR recorded unidentified sounds and both recorders stopped.

Flight crew throttled back the wrong engine. 5 seconds was too quick - just calling out and confirming the failure will take almost that long, let alone assessing the situation and reacting. Barring something like an in flight fire, really does no good to rush responses and throw emergency procedures out the window.

[RIslander]

In 2006 a military C-5 crashed in Delaware. They suffered a failure with one of their 4 engines while on approach to land. The crew used improper procedures to identify the failed engine and throttled back a perfectly good engine. The insufficient thrust led to the inability to maintain a stabilized descent and a subsequent crash.

This crash marked a change in how all US airlines identify and respond to a failed engine. Both pilots must identify and verify a failed engine before adjusting anything. Generally, the procedure is to identify the engine, then identify the affected thrust lever and slowly bring to idle, while verifying no net loss of power. Then verify and shut down the engine (the shut down button will not work unless thrust level is at idle). Pilots do this over and over and over in the simulators until its drilled into their head and anything else feels awkward. Planes will fly for hours on one engine (even if its on fire... it'll burn up and fall off the wing before anything else happens) and the crew is expected to move slowly and deliberately.

Asian carriers have a reputation for producing book smart pilots. However, their practical abilities are often weak. For example, most Asian carriers prohibit their pilots from shooting approaches without instrument navigation, also known as a visual approach. (See Asiana SFO crash). US pilots are trained to know what they need to know. Everything else they know where to find. US pilot training concentrates on crew resource management and practical flying skills. US pilots do visual approaches all the time, 1 because its fun, 2 because it keeps skills sharp. Its encouraged as long as its stabilized and safe.

Sounds like this crew panicked, threw procedure out the window and bagged a good engine.