- Title: TAIWAN: CHINA AIRLINES AIRBUS 300 CRASH AFTERMATH
- Date: 17th February 1998
- Summary: TAOYUAN, TAIWAN (FEBRUARY 17, 1998) (RTV) DAYSHOTS: MV PAN EMERGENCY WORKERS STAND AT CORDONED OFF CRASH SITE SCU SUITCASE ON GROUND IN AMONGST DEBRIS/MV POLICE OFFICERS LOOKING AT SUITCASE (2 SHOTS) SLV EMERGENCY WORKERS WALKING TOWARDS MECHANICAL DIGGER CLEARING DEBRIS SLV MANGLED WRECKAGE SCU EMERGENCY WORKERS SCU POLICEMAN STANDS GUARD ZOOM IN MECHANICAL DIGGER
- Embargoed: 6th July 2005 18:22
- Keywords:
- Location: TAOYUAN, TAIWAN
- Country: Taiwan
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVA1RAS83AARQQEIWO3GEQLY2GJL
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: As many as 200 people have died after a Taiwan airliner bringing holidaymakers home from Bali crashed on approach to Taipei's international airport on Monday (February 16).
Some of the wreckage slammed into a residential area near the airport after the China Airlines Airbus 300 crashed in dense fog on Monday (February 16), setting homes ablaze and injuring several residents.
At least two of those injured on the ground died.
There were unconfirmed reports that as many as five people were killed in cars struck by flying debris.
The crash area was a scene of total devastation, with bodies wrapped in white plastic lined up in long rows as rescue workers with flashlights combed the wreckage for signs of life.
A majority of the passengers were Taiwanese holidaymakers returning from package-tour beach vacations on Bali.
Officials said there were several foreigners aboard but their number and nationalities were not known.
Among the passengers pronounced dead were Taiwan's central bank governor Sheu Yuan-dong, his wife and three central bank officials who had been on the Indonesian holiday island for a meeting of southeast Asian central bankers.
Two hours after the crash rescue workers found an infant alive amid the wreckage.They believed the child had not been aboard the flight, but inside a home hit by the aircraft.
None of the 182 passengers and 15 crew aboard Flight CI676 was known to have survived the crash, which officials initially attributed to a failed landing in poor weather.
Relatives who had come to the airport gathered in shock in the terminal.Others congregated at China Airlines headquarters in Taipei to pore over passenger manifests hung on a wall.
No major discernible part of the aircraft, not even the fuselage, could be made out in the wreckage, which was strewn across a wide area adjacent to the airport.
Eyewitnesses say they first heard an explosion and then flames burst into the sky.
The crash was the worst in Taiwan history, though not the worst for Taiwan's leading carrier.A China Airlines Airbus 300 slammed into a mountain in Nagoya, Japan, in 1994, killing 264 passengers and crew.
A heavy fog that apparently contributed to the 8.05 p.m.
(1205 GMT) crash still hung over the scene long afterwards.
A thick blanket of white firefighting foam gave the jarring impression that snow had fallen on the subtropical island.
A 10-year-old boy who was taken alive from the wreckage died a short time later at hospital.
The aircraft's "black box" flight recorder was recovered.
Officials said all indications pointed to a weather-related landing failure as the cause.
China Airlines officials said the plane appeared to have had problems with its approach to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, Taipei's main international terminal in Taoyuan about 40 minutes southwest of the capital. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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