By William Ide
Associated Press
PENGHU, Taiwan — A Boeing 747-200 that China Airlines planned to retire next month dropped off radar screens and crashed in the Taiwan Strait Saturday as it was flying 225 people to Hong Kong. Searchers who looked through the night and into today found 35 bodies, but no survivors.
Rough seas slowed the search for bodies and debris from Flight CI611, which China Airlines said had sent no distress signals. The plane vanished about 20 minutes after taking off from Taipei on a clear afternoon.
"Communications had been normal," said James Chang, a China Airlines vice president. "The light spot suddenly disappeared from radar."
Swells up to 10 feet high battered fishing boats and coast guard ships that were scanning the waters around the crash site north of the Taiwanese island chain of Penghu, about 30 miles off Taiwan’s west coast.
Officials said they did not know what caused the crash. Tsai Duei, a vice transportation minister, told reporters that the plane broke apart in the sky, but he later said investigators were still uncertain what happened. Officials could not say whether there was an explosion.
There were early suspicions that the plane might have exploded in flight because farmers in the west coast county of Changhua — near the flight path — were finding scraps of airline magazines, immigration forms and other papers with China Airlines stickers or labels on them. They also found a China Airlines seat cover that appeared to be smeared with blood.
Investigators waded into rice fields with flashlights, collecting the bits of paper and putting them in plastic bags.
Chang would not speculate on what caused the crash, but said the accident seemed highly unusual.
"At such a high altitude, 35,000 feet, 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.
The passengers included 190 Taiwanese, 14 people from Macau and Hong Kong, one Singaporean and one Swiss citizen.
Near the crash site this morning, the smell of fuel was thick in the air and there was a rainbow-colored glimmer on the sea from an oil slick as big as a football field.
The crash is a serious blow for China Airlines, which is trying to shed a reputation as one of the world’s most dangerous airlines. In the past five years, Taiwan’s largest carrier has been aggressively retraining pilots and revamping its safety procedures.
The Boeing 747-200 had been flying for 22 years, and China Airlines planned to retire it next month. However, the airline said the aircraft was safe and was completely overhauled last year.
Larry McCracken, vice president of public relations for Boeing, said the age of the plane would not be a factor by itself.
"Life spans are 30 to 40 years," he said. "It depends on how much they’re used and how they’re maintained. There are 707s and DC-8s flying around that were built in the ’50s."
After a series of crashes in the 1990s, China Airlines became known for having one of the world’s worst airline safety records. Since 1969, the airline has had 12 deadly accidents. The airline’s last fatal crash was in 1999, when a jetliner flipped over and burst into flames during a crash landing in Hong Kong, killing three people.
May 25, 2002: Boeing 747-200 crashes at sea off Penghu, Taiwan, with 225 people on board.
August 22, 1999: Boeing MD-11 crash landed in Hong Kong, killing three people.
Feb. 16, 1998: Airbus A300 flight from Bali, Indonesia, crashes during landing in Taipei, killing 202.
March 26, 1994: Airbus A300 from Taipei crashes at the airport at Nagoya, Japan, killing 264.
Dec. 29, 1991: Boeing 747-200 crash lands in Taipei, killing five people.
Oct. 26, 1989: Boeing 737 slams into a mountain near the eastern Taiwanese city of Hualien, killing 54.
Feb. 16, 1986: Boeing 737 crashes off Penghu, Taiwan, killing 13.
Feb. 27, 1980: Boeing 707 crash lands in Manila, killing five.
Sept. 11, 1979: Boeing 707 crashes near Taipei, killing five.
Nov. 20, 1971: CVL plane crashes at sea off Penghu due to bombs planted by terrorists, killing 25.
Aug. 12, 1970: YS-11 plane crashes amid storm in Taipei, killing 16.
Jan. 2, 1969: DC-3 crashes in Taitung, eastern Taiwan, after being hit by turbulence, killing 24.
Source: Taiwan Ministry of Transportation and Aviation Safety Council
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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