China Airlines Flight CI-611 Taipei-Hong Kong crashed this afternoon with loss of all passengers and crew.
I was on a Taipei to Hong Kong flight yesterday. There but for the grace of God and all that. The entire airline industry pisses me off. Exhorbitant air fares, crappy service, inane regulations (like not being able to smoke or use your walkman during takeoff) and to top it all off they can’t even guarantee they’ll get you to your destination without killing you.
I’m in the office watching the reports come in. The plane disappeared from radar at 35,000 feet and the pilot made no distress calls.
Sounds like the whole thing exploded. Must have been the commies.
Probably someone smoking in the toilet.
Seems this is the four crash they’ve had since '94. I flew with them once, told me I couldn’t use my portable music during the entire flight, it’s the first airline I’ve ever been on that said I couldn’t use it during the whole flight. Maybe there’s a mysterious, or not so, reason why…
Jeff
jeff@oriented.org
You can view China Airline’s accident record here:
http://www.airsafe.com/events/airlines/taiwan.htm
It’s not a pretty picture.
The cause of the crash is not yet known so we can’t really condemn China Airlines (yet).
Hopefully in an attempt to rebuild their image they will now change their name to Taiwan Airlines.
The plane was to be sold to Thai Airways in July. They must be thanking the god of timing – better China Airlines than us…
I don’t suppose that a stray defense missile from Taiwan or the mainland could be behind this?
Seriously, how could this not send China Airlines into bankruptcy? Their record was remarkably bad before, but now? Even if they were the cheapest, which they are not, who would now even consider using them?
Should the title not be China Deathlines… this is how my friends and i generally refer to it
The airline blows the top of any stats for fatal accidents anywhere in the world… apart from some other natioanl airline carrier in some African company… I think it is Air Nigeria
And again talk about the news coverage for it… camera crews in people’s face… not bothering to show respect for the victim’s families…
One network referring to the plane as the DEATH FLIGHT
And best of all … it must be China Airlines behind this… showing all the crashes and the number of fatilites for the 737 over the last twenty years… it just seems to me that they aren’t differentiating between 1) Pilot error 2) Mechanical Failure 3)Terrorist related
When I think of China Deathlines and crashes… 1) usually pops into my head. I have flown with them and to be honest… everytime I do I feel nervous
China Deathline’s terrible record has a lot to do with the government and the Taiwan FAA. IF you let airlines like this fly commerical flights… then things like this will happen
You think too much! After a week or two this whole incident will have been forgotten in the minds of the Taiwanese travelling public.
Every crash is the same - How could this happen? When is China Airlines going to start taking safety seriously? Blah blah blah. Then some executive is sacrificed to take corporate responsibility, the planes are repainted, and a clever campaign to fill the seats is devised by the the marketing department - businesss as usual. Take a look around, the sad truth is the Taiwanese really don’t give a **** about safety!
I will unfortunately have to partially agree with chung on the safety fact. I remember once while on a China Airlines flight there was quite a bit of turbulence and I would say around 1/3 of the passengers were up about the cabin or hanging over seats. The flight attendants were pretty much indifferent.
I recall another incident on a different airline where I saw a child playing with a toy car a top of the emergency exit door. There was a flight attendant sitting on the floor playing with the family’s other child. I was amazed! I realize the chances of that child opening the door are pretty slim to none, and the probability of getting that door open going 600mph and at 35000ft are almost impossible, but you never know!
Seems ever time I fly here I’m amazed at something, but I’m getting used to it.
Heres a treat for any one who is a slightly sadistic. It’s a website I ran across several years ago that tells you the chances of crashing on a specific route and specific company’s plane. It’s actually a pretty interesting website. check it out.
Enjoy.
Jeff
jeff@oriented.org
Nearly all of China Airlines crashes seem to be because of pilot error. For godsakes, why don’t they train or hire some decent fliers?
Noticed the AP headline (that got repeated around the world) lastnight read ‘Chinese Jet crashes in Taiwan Strait’. Just more proof how confusing it is Taiwan’s companies and government agencies calling themselves China this and China that. China Airlines has got two really good reasons why they should change their name.
Bri
quote:
Originally posted by Bu Lai En: Nearly all of China Airlines crashes seem to be because of pilot error. For godsakes, why don't they train or hire some decent fliers? Bri
For what it’s worth a Taiwanese friend of mine told me this was all because of ‘Guan Xi’ hiring practices in the 80’s and 90’s. “Gotta hire so and so’s cousin–What? Last in his class at flight college!? Oh, well…”
Hmm, I once heard (any confirmation?) that CA got their pilots also from the ROC air force (“retired”? pilots). Would that say anything about the ROC air force…?
Anyway, the newspaper headlines today read something like the plane left its flight path - which is not really healthy as a korean jet experienced before. I’m curious what explanation they will come up with, probably instrument failure. After all, it also wasn’t the CKS airport crew’s responsibility that a Singapore jet took the wrong runway…
re: the website www.amigoingdown.comthat was mentioned above. I just tested it out.
I put in that I wanted to fly from Taipei to Hong Kong. On THAI airways the chance of crashing was 1 in 9 671 000. On China Airlines 1 in 1 837 000.
For Los Angeles to Singapore, it was about 1:30 million for United, 1:15 million for Singapore Airline, and 1:1.5 million for China Airline.
China Airlines used to recruit almost all of its pilots from the ROC airforce, which when you bear in mind that they do not operate multi engined jets is a little worrying.
However, since the crash in '98 then that policy had been changed and more outsiders were hired together with ex ROC Airforce pilots having to undergo training in the States for the conversion from fighter jets to commercial jets.
I only choose China Airlines as the airline of last resort, one because of safety and secondly because of the crap service that they provide.
Don’t think i will be even considering them in future.
If you are in an airplane and it breaks up at say 10000M… would you feel it…
Say if it didn’t explode… outside the temperature is -40C…and since there is almost zero oxygen to breath… you must immedailtey pass out… or well hopefull yhat is the case for those poor victims