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.
About Curzon
Lord George Nathaniel Curzon (1859 - 1925) entered the British House of Commons as a Conservative MP in 1886, where he served as undersecretary of India and Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Viceroy of India at the turn of the 20th century where he delineated the North West Frontier Province,
ordered a military expedition to Tibet, and unsuccessfully tried to partition the province of Bengal during his six-year tenure. Curzon served as Leader of the House of Lords in Prime Minister Lloyd George's War Cabinet and became Foreign Secretary in January 1919, where his most famous act was
the drawing of the Curzon Line between a new Polish state and Russia. His publications include
Russia in Central Asia (1889) and
Persia and the Persian Question (1892).
In real life, "Curzon" is a US citizen from the East Coast who has been a financial analyst, freelance translator, and university professor; he is currently on assignment in Tokyo.
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 :)
were completely hollow, even.
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.
Might this be the same airline as the famous “Mandarin Airlines“? I couldn’t help but remember that picture…
They are starting to make Soviet ideas of safety and maintenance look sane.
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.
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