CNN are reporting a Taiwanese jet is on fire in Okinawa. Aside from saying there were 150 on board and it arrived from Taipei this morning, no further details as yet.
HG
China Airlines. Completely gutted but no injuries.
HG
it’s not on cnn.
[quote]China Airlines plane on fireFrom correspondents in Tokyo
August 20, 2007 12:02pm
Article from: ReutersFont size: + -
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A CHINA Airlines plane caught fire at an airport on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa today.
The Boeing 737 passenger plane had flown from Taipei to Naha with 155 passengers on board, public broadcaster NHK said.
It said the passengers and pilot had escaped the blaze.
Kyodo news agency reported there had been no injuries.
“I have unconfirmed information that about 170 passengers have already got off the plane,” an official at the airport told AFP.
TV pictures showed black smoke billowing from the plane as airport fire crews smothered it in foam. [/quote]
It’s being broadcast on both CNN & BBC world. China airlines state no injuries, however airport authorities indicate some of the crew are unaccounted for. Given that under normal conditions getting off a plane with Taiwanese passengers is hazardous, be very surprised if there were really no injuries…
It was shown on Sky news a while ago.
Wow. And I thought it was bad when I my bus was pulled over for speeding on the freeway, missed the plane, and a Taiwanese freighter ran aground outside of Naha, shutting down the airport, and leaving me cooling my heels for another 12 hours.
[quote=“CNA”]Taipei, Aug. 20 (CNA) A passenger plane of Taipei-based China Airlines (CAL) exploded upon landing at Okinawa’s Naha international airport around 10: 30 a.m. local time.
All of the 157 passengers aboard were evacuated before the Boeing
737-800 exploded, according to a CAL spokesman.
The CAL flight was in the blast and broke into two pieces from the tail after all the passengers were evacuated. The fire was put out as of 11:10 a.m. local time.
The Boeing 737-800 departed from Taiwan Taoyuan international airport around 8: 45 a.m., carrying four travel groups from around Taiwan to Okinawa for tourism.[/quote][quote]The CAL flight was in the blast and broke into two pieces from the tail after all the passengers were evacuated. The fire was put out as of 11:10 a.m. local time.
The Boeing 737-800 departed from Taiwan Taoyuan international airport around 8: 45 a.m., carrying four travel groups from around Taiwan to Okinawa for tourism.[/quote]
Speak English, dammit!
La li la la la li. 
HG
Who’s writing the news over there?
From CNN:
[quote]* May 2002 - A China Airlines Boeing 747-200 bound for Hong Kong with 225 passengers and crew on board crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff. There were no survivors.
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September 1999 - A China Airlines MD-11 crashed on landing in Hong Kong in September 1999 and all but three of the 315 passengers and crew survived.
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February 1998 - A China Airlines Airbus carrying holidaymakers back from Bali crashed and disintegrated at Taipei airport, killing 196 aboard and seven on the ground.
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April 1994 - China Airlines Airbus jet crashed in Nagoya, Japan, when it stalled during an aborted landing. Only seven of the 271 passengers and crew survived. (Reporting by Richard Dobson in Taipei)[/quote]
They’ve done quite well, considering. Over five years since they lost a plane, and it appears they didn’t kill anyone this time. Still a piss-poor safety record given the tiny amount of miles they fly and how many planes they lose.
Is it possible the CCP is sabotaging China Airlines’ planes? A serious question. This is a highly abnormal rate of losses and can’t just be negligence surely? I mean compared to even the worst airlines in the world, CAL looks bad. CAL’s rate for Fatal Loss Event per million miles flown is 7.16 and they’ve only done 0.9m flights. Only the following appear to be worse: (from airsafe.com)
Cubana (18.53 - ouch!)
AeroPeru (9.74)
Air Zimbabwe (11.54)
Egypt Air/Air Sinai (7.60)
Royal Jordanian (7.99)
By comparison:
American Airlines (0.40)
Northwest Airlines (0.21)
Southwest Airlines (0.00, 15.26 million flights, 17 times as many as CAL, without killing anyone at all!)
United Airlines (0.31)
Delta Airlines (0.17)
British Airways (0.17)
Still, they’re cheap. And that’s all that matters. There is more chance of being run over by a b… AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
China airlines… here we go (or don’t go as the case may be) again. I know it is a while since they had a big accident so I guess it is to be expected by now. I am not really afraid of flying, but China airlines will always stick in my mind as the only airline that has smilingly handed me a newspaper as I got on the plane with the entire front page being about them crashing the previous day. I guess it must have been about 6 years ago. It was a very early morning flight and I had not seen the news from the previous day so I was somewhat shocked, and judging from the look on other passengers faces I was not the only one to have that reaction. If it had been any normal first world airline you would think someone would have had the brains to hand out newspapers from the previous day or not hand them out at all, but this is China airlines and if they were well run… well I guess the problems would not be occuring regularly in the first place.
They are not cheap, especially if you consider the piss-poor service on board. I travelled on a CI package last week and wasn’t impressed.
And when I compared prices last year for flying to Europe CI was 50% (!) more expensive than Lufthansa on business class. Economy would have neen around the same, give a take a thousand NT, which doesn’t make much of a difference when the price is something like 38k.
The smile was to convey your immense good fortune that you weren’t flying the previous day and that the bad luck demons simply couldn’t strike two days in a row.
HG
I had very nice service on China Airlines when I first arrived here, in 1994 (shortly after the Nagoya crash, which I assumed was a one-off). But then came the Taipei airport crash, and then the Nagoya didn’t look so isolated anymore. Years later, I was under the impression that quality had been significantly upgraded. 
Very dramatic shot on CNN:
[quote=“Lord Lucan”]From CNN:
[quote]* May 2002 - A China Airlines Boeing 747-200 bound for Hong Kong with 225 passengers and crew on board crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff. There were no survivors.
-
September 1999 - A China Airlines MD-11 crashed on landing in Hong Kong in September 1999 and all but three of the 315 passengers and crew survived.
-
February 1998 - A China Airlines Airbus carrying holidaymakers back from Bali crashed and disintegrated at Taipei airport, killing 196 aboard and seven on the ground.
-
April 1994 - China Airlines Airbus jet crashed in Nagoya, Japan, when it stalled during an aborted landing. Only seven of the 271 passengers and crew survived. (Reporting by Richard Dobson in Taipei)[/quote]
They’ve done quite well, considering. Over five years since they lost a plane, and it appears they didn’t kill anyone this time. Still a piss-poor safety record given the tiny amount of miles they fly and how many planes they lose.[/quote]
There is a more complete list of China Airlines incidents at Wikipedia.
[quote=“wix”][quote=“Lord Lucan”]From CNN:
[quote]* May 2002 - A China Airlines Boeing 747-200 bound for Hong Kong with 225 passengers and crew on board crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff. There were no survivors.
-
September 1999 - A China Airlines MD-11 crashed on landing in Hong Kong in September 1999 and all but three of the 315 passengers and crew survived.
-
February 1998 - A China Airlines Airbus carrying holidaymakers back from Bali crashed and disintegrated at Taipei airport, killing 196 aboard and seven on the ground.
-
April 1994 - China Airlines Airbus jet crashed in Nagoya, Japan, when it stalled during an aborted landing. Only seven of the 271 passengers and crew survived. (Reporting by Richard Dobson in Taipei)[/quote]
They’ve done quite well, considering. Over five years since they lost a plane, and it appears they didn’t kill anyone this time. Still a piss-poor safety record given the tiny amount of miles they fly and how many planes they lose.[/quote]
There is a more complete list of China Airlines incidents at Wikipedia.[/quote]
Better lists still here and here.
[quote]Fatal Events Since 1970 for China Airlines
The following events are those involving at least one passenger death where the aircraft flight had a direct or indirect role. Excluded would be events where the only passengers killed were stowaways, hijackers, or saboteurs.
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12 August 1970; China Airlines YS11; Taipei, Taiwan: The aircraft was on approach under conditions of heavy rain and low clouds when it struck a low ridge about 660 feet (200 meters) about one half mile (800 meters) from the runway. Two of the five crew members and 12 of the 26 passengers were killed.
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21 November 1971; China Airlines Caravelle; near Penghu Islands, Formosa Strait between Taiwan and the PRC: The aircraft was believed to have been destroyed by an inflight explosion caused by a bomb. All 17 passengers and eight crew members were killed.
-
27 February 1980; China Airlines 707-300; Manila, Philippines: The crew executed a steep and unstabilized approach, touching down hard short of the runway and bouncing, eventually stopping on the runway after having the two outboard engines and parts of wing departing the aircraft. Two of the 122 passengers were killed.
-
16 August 1982; China Airlines 747; near Hong Kong: The aircraft encountered severe inflight turbulence. Two of the 292 passengers were killed.
-
16 February 1986; China Airlines 737-200; Pescadores Islands, Taiwan: The aircraft touched down on the runway but crashed during an attempted go around . All six passengers and seven crew members were killed.
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26 October 1989; China Airlines 737-200; near Hualien, Taiwan: The crew was using an incorrect departure procedure and hit cloud shrouded high ground at 7000 feet (2130 meters). All seven crew members and 49 passengers were killed.
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26 April 1994; China Airlines A300-600; Nagoya, Japan: Crew errors led to the aircraft stalling and crashing during approach. All 15 crew and 249 of the 264 passengers were killed.
-
16 February 1998; China Airlines A300-600; near Taipei, Taiwan: The aircraft crashed into a residential area short of the runway during its second landing attempt. The scheduled flight had been inbound from the island of Bali in Indonesia. The event occurred under conditions of darkness with rain and reduced visibility due to fog. All 15 crew and 182 passengers were killed. At least seven persons on the ground were also killed.
-
22 August 1999; China Airlines MD11; Hong Kong, China: The aircraft was landing in Hong Kong at night and during a storm after a flight from Bangkok. The aircraft struck the runway and came to rest upside down and on fire. All 15 crew members survived, but three of the 300 passengers were killed.
-
25 May 2002; China Airlines 747-200; near the Penghu Islands, Taiwan: The aircraft experienced an in-flight breakup and crashed into the sea about 20 minutes into a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong while the aircraft was just above 30,000 feet… The impact area was in the Taiwan Straits near the Penghu Islands about 75 km (47 mi) from the coast of Taiwan. Apparently, there was no distress signal, emergency message, or other indication of any problem sent out prior to the event. Weather and flight conditions were normal, and no distress signal or other communication was received prior to the crash. The 19 crew members and 206 passengers were all killed.
The accident aircraft was the last 747-200 in passenger service with China Airlines and was to be sold to another carrier next month. According to Boeing, the aircraft was delivered to China Airlines in July 1979 and had accumulated approximately 21,180 landings and 64,394 flight hours. This nearly 22-year old aircraft was newer than similar models in the fleets of U.S. airlines. According to the FAA, the average age of Boeing 747-200 and 747-300 models in U.S. airline fleets at the time of this event was 24 years.
This was the 26th fatal event involving the Boeing 747. The next most recent 747 event was an October 2000 Singapore Airlines accident in Taipei that killed 79 passengers and four crew members. There have been several fatal events involving in-flight breakups, including the 1996 event involving TWA Flight 800 and a November 2001 fatal event involving an American Airlines Airbus A300 over New York City.
Previous in-flight breakups involving jet airliners have been due to varied causes, including a fuel tank explosion, severe weather or other atmospheric phenomena, bombs, missiles, and midair collisions.
[/quote]
airsafe.com/events/airlines/taiwan.htm
A mere 1,110 people killed. Yes, this airline should certainly continue to be allowed to fly into European and US airspace. It’s safe as houses. Yes sirree, Bob.
I think China Airlines service is great. Never had a problem and their business class is frequently cheaper than other airlines inside Asia. To Europe don’t Taiwan based airlines have to fly different routes that do not fly over China’s airspace. I think that adds to the cost.
On the way back from Bali in Business class they upgraded me and my family to First Class on a refurbished Boeing jet. Flat seats baby with a lot of wood, looked like the interior of a Rolls Royce. Really nice. Normally though their business class is nothing special, even Northwest has better business class. To the USA I think NWA is usually the cheapest biz class to the East coast.
Anyway, I am looking forward to cheap tickets to Okinawa and the rest of Japan via China Airlines now. Great bargains to follow.