China Airlines Flight 611 edit
extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
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China Airlines Flight 611 edit
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 CG render of B-18255
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 25 May 2002 |
| Type | In-flight structural failure, Explosive decompression |
| Site | Taiwan Strait |
| Passengers | 206 |
| Crew | 19 |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Fatalities | 225 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 747-200B |
| Operator | China Airlines |
| Tail number | B18255 |
| Flight origin | Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport |
| Destination | Hong Kong International Airport |
China Airlines Flight 611 Callsign: Dynasty 611 (CAL611, CI611) was a 747 on a regularly scheduled flight from Chiang Kai Shek International Airport (now, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport) in Taoyuan to Chek Lap Kok International Airport in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. While in flight the aircraft broke into pieces in mid-air and crashed, killing all aboard on 25 May 2002.
CNN referred to the crash as the "Taiwan Tragedy".1
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On 25 May, the flight took off at 2:50 p.m. local time for the 1 hour 20 minute flight to Hong Kong. The flight crew consisted of Captain Ching-Fong Yi (易清豐, Hanyu Pinyin: Yì Qīngfēng), First Officer Yea Shyong Shieh (謝亞雄, Hanyu Pinyin: Xiè Yàxióng), and Flight Engineer Sen Kuo Chao (趙盛國, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhào Shèngguó).23
About 25 minutes after takeoff4, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens, suggesting it had experienced an in-flight breakup at FL350 (approximately 35,000 feet, or 7 miles), near the Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait. All 19 crew members and 206 passengers died. 114 of the passengers were members of a group tour to Hong Kong or PRC China organized by five travel agencies. The plane was expected to arrive at 4:28 p.m.
The crash occurred at a time between 3:37 PM and 3:40 PM; Chang Chia-juch (張家祝, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhāng Jiāzhù), the Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications, said that two Cathay Pacific aircraft in the area received B-18255's emergency location-indicator signals.5
The passengers included a former legislator and two reporters from the United Daily News.5
| Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
 People's Republic of China |
9 | 0 | 9 |
 Hong Kong |
5 | 0 | 5 |
 Singapore |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 Switzerland |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 Republic of China (Taiwan) |
190 | 19 | 209 |
| Total | 206 | 19 | 225 |
The Republic of China government kept statistics of the passengers who were recovered.
The remains of 175 of the 206 passengers aboard were recovered and identified. 11 The first 82 bodies, those of 76 passengers and 6 cabin crew, were found floating on the surface of the ocean, and were recovered by fishing vessels, the Coast Guard, and military vessels.
Three flight crew members were autopsied. Authorities placed ten bodies and some human remains in an X-ray.
Most of the recovered passengers in the rear of the jet (Zones D through E) were found naked, since their clothes were torn off due to the forces of the decompression. 11 12 Most of the recovered passengers in the front of the jet (Zones A through C) were found clothed.
Of the recovered passengers 11:
Two of the fully clothed passengers were travelling with infants in their laps; the clothing situation of the infants was not stated.
Some passengers were found floating, while some remained strapped in their seats.
Of the recovered passengers 11:
92% of the passengers initially found floating on the ocean surface had assigned seats located in and between Rows 42 and 57 (Zone E).
Some passengers had injuries predominantly on one side per body. Of these passengers 11:
Fifty-one sustained tibia and/or fibula bone fractures. 11
Some passengers sustained back and/or hand abrasions. Of them 11:
At 5:05 p.m., a military C130 aircraft spotted a crashed airliner 20 nautical miles (37 km) northeast of Makung. Oil slicks were also spotted at 5:05 p.m. The first body was found at 6:10 p.m.
Searchers recovered 15% of the wreckage, including part of the cockpit, and found no signs of burns, explosives or gunshots.
There was no distress signal or communication sent out prior to the crash.13 Radar data suggests that the aircraft broke into four pieces while at FL350. This theory is supported by the fact that articles which would have been found inside the aircraft were found up to 80 miles (129 km) from the crash site in villages in central Taiwan. The items included magazines, documents, luggage, photographs, Taiwan dollars, and a China Airlines-embossed, blood-stained pillow case.1415
The weather and climate were normal. The cockpit voice recorder showed that the pilot did not detect any anomaly and was humming the famous oldie tune "When Will You Return?" by Teresa Teng.
The flight data recorder from Flight 611 shows that the plane began gaining altitude at a significantly faster rate in the 27 seconds before the plane broke apart, although the extra gain in altitude was well within the plane's design limits. The plane was supposed to be leveling off then as it approached its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Shortly before the breakup, one of the aircraft's four engines began providing slightly less thrust. Coincidentally, the engine was the only one recovered from the sea floor. Pieces of the aircraft were found in the ocean and on Taiwan, including in the city of Changhua.16 17
The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China co-operated in the recovery of the aircraft; the People's Republic of China allowed personnel from Taiwan to search for bodies and aircraft fragments in those Taiwan Strait waters controlled by the People's Republic of China. 184
China Airlines requested relatives to submit blood samples for DNA testing at Criminal Investigation Bureau of National Police Administration and two other locations.19
The United Daily News stated that some relatives of passengers described the existence of this flight to Hong Kong as being "unnecessary". They said this because most of the passengers intended to arrive in Mainland China but due to the lack of direct air links between Taiwan and Mainland China the travellers had to fly via Hong Kong; the relatives advocated the opening of direct air links between Taiwan and Mainland China.18
The final investigation report found that the accident was the result of metal fatigue due to inadequate maintenance after a previous incident. The report finds that on 7 February 1980, the accident aircraft suffered damage from a tailstrike accident in Hong Kong. The aircraft was then ferried back to Taiwan on the same day de-pressurized, and a temporary repair done the day after. A permanent repair was conducted by a team from Boeing on 23 May till 26 May 1980. The permanent repair of the tail strike was not carried out in accordance with the Boeing SRM, in that the area of damaged skin in Section 46 was not removed (trimmed) and the repair doubler did not extend beyond the entire damaged area enough to restore the overall structural strength. Consequently, after repeated cycles of depressurization and pressurization during flight, the weakened hull gradually started to crack and finally broke open in mid-flight on 25 May 2002, exactly 22 years after the faulty repair was made upon the damaged tail. An explosive decompression of the aircraft occurred once the crack opened up, causing the complete disintegration of the aircraft in mid-air.
China Airlines disputed much of the report, stating that investigators did not find the pieces of the aircraft that would prove the contents of the investigation report. 20
Flight 611 no longer exists. Shortly after the accident, China Airlines changed the flight number to 619, which now serves the Taipei - Hong Kong route along with existing flights 601, 603, 605, 607, 609, 613, 615, 617, and 803.
The aircraft B18255 (originally registered as B-1866) involved, MSN 21843, was the only Boeing 747-200 passenger aircraft left in the China Airlines fleet at the time. It was delivered to the airline in 1979,21 and had logged 64,810 hours of flight time. Prior to the crash China Airlines had sold B-18255 to Orient Thai Airlines for US$1.45 million. The accident flight was the aircraft's penultimate flight for China Airlines as it was scheduled to be delivered to Orient Thai Airlines after its return flight from Hong Kong to Taipei. The contract to sell the aircraft was voided after the crash.22
The remaining four 747-200 freighters in China Airlines fleet were grounded immediately by Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) after the crash. The airline returned the jets to service a few days later after maintenance checks.
