The TransAsia plane that crashed into a river in Taipei, killing 35 people, failed to produce enough thrust after take-off, Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council officials confirmed on Friday, adding that one engine was turned off and restarted.
Flight GE235 was carrying 58 passengers and crew, at least 35 of whom died when it lurched nose-up between buildings, clipped an overpass and a taxi with one of its wings and then crashed upside down into a river.
The black-box data and voice recorders of the two-engined aircraft showed that the plane warned five times of stalling before the crash, also that the flight crew tried to restart one of the failed engines to no avail. Council officials said.
“The right engine entered a state called ‘auto-feather’, in which it reduced thrust to the propeller.
“The flight crew then reduced acceleration to the left engine and then attempted to restart it, but it did not gain
enough thrust,” Managing Director of the council, Thomas Wang, stated without giving a reason for the restart.
He said the pilot had announced a “flame-out”, which could happen when fuel supply to an engine is interrupted or when there is faulty combustion, but there had not been one.
“The first engine experienced a problem 37 seconds after take-off at 1,200 feet.
“The flight crew stepped on the accelerator of engine 2 … The engine was still operating, but neither engine produced power,” Thomas said.
He said that the aircraft could fly with one engine, that the plane was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW127M engines. Pratt & Whitney which is part of United Technologies.
The pilot, hailed as a hero for his actions in the final moments, was still holding the joystick in the cockpit when his body was found.
The pilot, Liao Chien-tsung, was praised by Taipei’s Mayor for steering the plane between apartment blocks and commercial buildings before ditching the stalled aircraft in a river.
The bodies of Liao and his co-pilot were retrieved from the almost-new turboprop ATR 72-600’s cockpit still clutching the joystick, with their legs badly broken, investigators said.
Eight people are still missing. Aviation officials said they have not given up hope of finding them. Fifteen people survived.
The plane took off from Taipei’s downtown Songshan airport and was bound for the Taiwan island of Kinmen. Among those on board were 31 tourists from China, mainly from the southwestern city of Xiamen.
Taiwan’s Aviation Regulator has ordered TransAsia and Uni Air, a subsidiary of EVA Airways Corp, to conduct engine and fuel system checks on the remaining 22 ATR aircraft they still operate.
