When China Airlines crash landing in Hong Kong killed two passengers as plane overturned and caught fire
- Typhoon No 8 signal was up when the 1999 flight from Bangkok landed, flipped over and caught fire. More than 200 passengers were injured, one of whom later died
- Co-pilot reported he had told the pilot to abort the landing, and investigation report suggested pilot error, but the airline suggested wind shear was a factor
“A China Airlines jet crash-landed at Chek Lap Kok and overturned in flames last night, killing two passengers and injuring 211 others on board,” the South China Morning Post reported on August 23, 1999. The flight from Bangkok to Taipei “landed during a No 8 signal hoisted for Typhoon Sam”.
On August 24, the Post reported that a report to Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration “raised the possibility of miscommunication between the pilot and co-pilot”, with the co-pilot, a Mr Liu, cited as saying he “had told Captain Gerardo Lettich, 58, to abort the landing by pulling the nose up or ‘going around’ when he found the plane tilted at an angle of 15 degrees”, but “the pilot did nothing”.
By August 28, the death toll had risen to three, the paper reported.
On September 18, the Post noted that the initial results of the investigation from the Civil Aviation Department pointed towards pilot error and that “the failure to adequately slow the McDonnell Douglas MD-11’s rate of descent” resulted in a crash-landing. However, the next day, a statement from China Airlines suggested it was pondering whether it was “because of the wind shear that the airspeed of the plane dropped suddenly”.
While Liu had “resumed duty after being cleared of blame over the accident and passing a flying test”, Lettich remained suspended. He was quoted in the Post on May 3, 2000, as saying that “the only possible reason for the accident was wind shear or that something didn’t work in the tail of the plane”.
