Updates:
More updates in previous story:
Eye witnesses and Air Traffic control people say:
Weather was very bad at airport. Heavy rain and winds were all over the area and ill-fated Flight proceeded to landing strip twice but could not land.
At 7.06pm, the captain requested another landing, but subsequently lost contact with the control tower and tower gave OK but then flight lost its contact with tower
I fear less fuel could be a reason because flight was in air for a long time and might consumed fuel more then it could have for a domestic flight.
The decision of flying in bad weather from Kaoxiong was not desirable. Flight was scheduled at 4pm, but was delayed to 5.43pm due to the typhoon. Airline could have cancelled the flight because of very bad weather at Penghu.
The plane was found crashed near the village of Xicun, close to airport strip and local residents saw flames around the plane.
Updates:
Local authorities claim that Flight GE222 had departed from Kaohsiung International Airport (KHH) at 17:43 on a scheduled domestic flight to Magong Airport, Penghu Islands, Taiwan. The airplane crashed during an attempted landing about 19:15. Transportation Minister Yeh Kuang-shih mentioned 47 dead and 11 survivors while five are in critical conditions. Flightradar24 that follows commercial flights all over the world and provides data did not track #GE222 as it did not have an ADS-B transponder.
Monitoring Desk: 53 passengers are dead as TransAsia Airways aircraft ATR-72 international Registration# :B-22817 crashed while landing in Penghu Taiwan. This was a 72-seater plane and was carrying 54 passenger including four children. This was a brand new ATR-72 having its first flight just four month back on April 8, 2014.
Information coming from a local air traffic control person via twitter says:
The flight was originally planned to set off from Kaoxiong at 4pm, but was delayed to 5.43pm due to the typhoon. Because of the bad weather at Penghu, the flight’s first attempt to land failed. At 7.06pm, the captain requested another landing, but subsequently lost contact with the control tower. The possible reason of crash is bad weather or fuel because flight had to fly for hours and possible its fuel emptied. The plane was later found crashed near the village of Xicun. Local residents saw flames around the plane.
TransAsia was formed in 1951 as the first private civil airline in Taiwan. Air services ceased in 1958 when the management of the airline decided to concentrate their attention on their agency businesses. Domestic flights resumed in 1988, after an 30 year absence from the market. In 1991, the first ATR 72 aircraft joined the airline. First scheduled international services started in 1995 to Macau and Surabaya.
In January 2014, the airline announced plans to launch a budget airline named V Air.
Updates: ATR-72 had its second fatal accident within last one year during landing. On 16 October 2013 an ATR 72–600 crashed into the Mekong River whilst on approach to Pakse International Airport, Laos, killing all 49 people on board. This incident marks the first ATR 72–600 to be written off in a crash.
On 23 July 2014, TransAsia Airways Flight 222, an ATR 72 crashed into hard ground whilst attempting an emergency landing on approach to Magong in Taiwan’s Penghu county in the Taiwan Strait, killing at least 47 people.
ATR-72 has a bad landing problem history in recent past. Its landing gear problem fatal serious to non-fatal accidents in past also. On 17 July 2011, Aer Arann ATR 72–212 EI-SLM was damaged when the nose gear collapsed on landing at Shannon International Airport, Ireland. The aircraft was operating an international scheduled passenger flight from Manchester Airport, United Kingdom. There were no injuries amongst the 4 crew and 21 passengers on board.
On 13 February 2012 Danish Air Transport DX627, operated by an ATR 72–200 with 16 passengers en route from Bergen to Moss (Oslo) Airport Rygge had trouble with the front landing wheel and performed an emergency landing at Rygge Airport. All passengers and crew escaped unharmed.
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