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.