News
Taiwan charges air traffic controllers with criminal negligence in TransAsia crash
April 22nd 2016
Taiwan has charged two air traffic controllers with criminal negligence contributing to the crash of TransAsia Airways flight GE222 on July 24 last year near the airport at Magong on Penghu Island, that killed 49 passengers and crew. Read More »
The two pilots, who died in the crash, also were blamed for flying the ATR72-500 too low and into a residential area as they attempted to land at Magong during a typhoon. "The four people are found to have been negligent in their duties over this crash," the Penghu prosecutors said in a statement last week.
The probe said other factors contributed to the loss of life. They included poor communication of weather information to the flight crew and coordination issues at Magong Airport, where a senior duty officer debated with another colleague for twelve minutes before allowing the TransAsia flight to land.
TransAsia has had several accidents in its recent history. Seven months after flight GE222 crashed, another company ATR72, a -600 variant, crashed on final approach to Taipei’s Sung Shan Airport, killing 43 passengers and crew.
