Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council has blamed the Feb. 4, 2015 crash of a TransAsia ATR 72-600 in Taipei on the pilots’ failure to identify and properly respond to an engine fault and a range of contributory factors including insufficient oversight of the airline by Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration and TransAsia’s deficient flight operations and management processes.
According to the final report, during the initial climb after takeoff from Taiwan’s Songshan Airport, an intermittent failure of engine number 2’s autofeather unit (AFU) might have caused the automatic takeoff power control system (ATPCS) sequence that resulted in the uncommanded autofeather of its propeller. Subsequently, it added, the flight crew did not perform the documented abnormal and emergency procedures to identify the failure and perform proper corrective actions. That failure led the pilot flying to retard power of the operative engine and shut it down. Not enough time and altitude remained to allow the pilots to restart the engine and recover the aircraft.
Flight GE235, carrying five crewmembers and 53 passengers on a scheduled flight from Songshan to Kinmen, lost control during its initial climb and dove into the Keelung River, three nautical miles east of its departing runway at Songshan Airport. Forty-three occupants died in the crash, and 15 sustained injuries. The aircraft’s left wing tip collided with a taxi on an overpass before the aircraft entered the river. The taxi driver sustained serious injuries and the only taxi passenger sustained minor injuries.