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Curzon
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Curzon

Date

August 20th, 2007

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Not an isolated incident

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From Yahoo Photos: A China Airlines aircraft in flames at Naha airport, Okinawa, 20 August. The Taiwanese airliner burst into fire on Monday moments after landing in southern Japan but all 165 passengers and crew made a dramatic escape from the engulfing flames.

More on China Air’s reputation as Asia’s most dangerous airlines (and that’s saying a lot) here.

Comments to this entry

Mihnea Dumitru
August 20, 2007
3:07 pm
Although it's more of an anecdote, I remember flying the airline in 1999, was heading over to Beijing for a high school Model United Nations there.. Anyway, aside from the creaking plane and what not, the part I liked best was that the audio system was air-based. You didn't have electronics inside the earplugs, they and the tubing was completely hollow :)
Mihnea Dumitru
August 20, 2007
3:08 pm
were completely hollow, even.
Jing
August 20, 2007
10:36 pm
Wrong airline. There is "China Airlines" based in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and "China Air" based in the People's Republic of China (Mainland commies). You likely flew Air China as China Airlines does not offer flights to the mainland, excepting Hong Kong.
Adrian
August 20, 2007
11:13 pm
Might this be the same airline as the famous "Mandarin Airlines"? I couldn't help but remember that picture...
ElamBend
August 21, 2007
1:23 am
They are starting to make Soviet ideas of safety and maintenance look sane.
Kurt9
August 21, 2007
4:25 pm
China Airlines is the Taiwan-based airline with the spotty safety record. Air China is a mainland-based airline (along with 12 others) that has, so far, a reasonable safety record. Mandarin Airlines is a subsidiery of China Airlines and also has its spotty safety record.

The problem of China Airlines was corruption and mismanagement. China Airlines used to be part owned by the government (and military) which was a conflict of interest, since the government that is supposed to regulate safety is also running an airline itself. Maintainance crews did not read or speak English and the Boeing maintainance manuals were not translated into Chinese (this has been corrected). Pilots, many being military pilots, tended to be dare devils and flew the planes through storms and what not when pilots of other airlines would fly different routes, etc. China airlines concluded a deal in 2002 where they would be run under the management of Singapore Airlines in order to improve operating procedures and safety. The Taiwan government also divested out of the airline in order to eliminate the conflict of interest problem.

Several of the crashes in the 90's were of Airbus A320's, which looks to be the result of an unresolved software bug in the control software. There have been 5-6 crashed that are attributed to this problem. I have no intentions of flying on the A380, IF and when it becomes operational, because of rumors of software bugs in its control system as well.

I flew China Airlines often in 1997-2001. I flew them once last year.
China Airlines Paints Over Name, Logo On Wreckage Of Jet : Who Sucks
August 22, 2007
11:03 am
[...] interested in China Airlines’ safety record, check out this article in the Asia Sentinel [via Coming Anarchy]. Would you travel via China [...]