A China Airlines flight to Hong Kong with 225 people on board crashed on Saturday afternoon into the Taiwan Strait, the airline and officials said. There were no immediate reports of survivors.
The ageing Boeing 747-200 took off in clear weather from Taipei’s international airport and was reported missing about 3:30pm (0730 GMT) – about 50 minutes after its designated takeoff time, Chang Chia-chu, vice transportation minister, told reporters.
The plane went down near the Penghu island group, about 50 kilometres off Taiwan’s western coast; Chang said that a man’s body was found.
”Things such as the plane’s cabin door, life jackets and other things related to the crash were being discovered,” he said.
Flight CI611 was carrying 206 passengers and 19 crew, said Wang Cheng-yu, an official with China Airlines, Taiwan’s biggest carrier.
The passengers on board included two Singaporeans, 14 people from Hong Kong, Macau or China and one European, Wang said. Most of the other passengers were Taiwanese.
He said there was a large oil slick about 36 kilometres northeast of Penghu, about 300 kilometres southwest of Taipei, Chang said.
China Airlines said that the Boeing 747-200, built in 1979, was the last plane of its kind in the airline’s fleet.
At Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok airport, officials issued an
announcement for people waiting for friends and relatives on Flight CI611 to go to the China Airlines counter.
One man, who gave only his surname Chan, said he had arrived about 4pm (0800 GMT) to pick up a friend, but he soon heard the bad news.
”I’m worried about my friend,” Chan said. ”I’ve heard from the radio that the plane has apparently crashed into the sea.”
Chan said his friend was a Hong Kong man studying in Taiwan but he declined to provide the friend’s name.
Due to a series of crashes in the 1990s, China Airlines used to be considered one of the world’s most dangerous air carriers. But in recent years, the airline has reshuffled its board and put a greater emphasis on safety.
The last known fatal China Airlines accident was in 1999 when a jetliner flipped over and burst into flames during a crash landing in Hong Kong, killing three people.
According to the aviation safety website, Airsafe.com, China Airlines has had nine fatal accidents since 1970. – Sapa-AP