TransAsia probed for possible breach of new safety regulations

TAIWAN aviation officials are examining whether pilots of a TransAsia Airways Corp.’s turboprop that crashed Wednesday breached new regulations aimed at forcing them to take more time to conduct pre-flight checks.

Authorities are probing if pilots met the minimum transit time requirements introduced last month that apply specifically to TransAsia and its fleet of ATR 72 aircraft following a fatal crash on Taiwan’s Penghu islands in July, Clark Lin, director of flight standards at the Civil Aeronautics Administration told Bloomberg News.

Pilots must spend no less than the mandated time at the gate to meet the new rule, he said.

“After Penghu, we did inspections and found potential risks,” Lin said in Taipei Friday. “The transit time has been set at 30 minutes so the pilot can have sufficient time.”

Flight 235, with aircraft registration No. B-22816, departed downtown Taipei’s Songshan airport on the pilots’ second trip to Kinmen near mainland China that morning before crashing four minutes later in the nearby Keelung River. A review of the aircraft’s Technical Log Book entries, which were kept by TransAsia and released by the CAA, show the pilots may have spent just 20 minutes at the gate in Kinmen while fuel was added, before returning to Taipei.

After being shown the log entries by Bloomberg News on Friday, Lin said he was unable to immediately comment on whether they reflected the true status of the aircraft.

‘Enforcement Action’

“After you brought it to our attention, I have started looking into it,” he said later the same day. “If they violate, then we will take enforcement action.”

Amy Chen, a spokeswoman for Taipei-based TransAsia, declined to immediately comment on the logbook and the airline’s compliance with regulations when contacted today. She didn’t answer subsequent calls to her mobile phone. Chen attended a CAA media conference Feb. 5 when the logbook entries were released.

TransAsia said on Saturday it canceled 90 flights over three days to allow its ATR pilots to undergo mandated retraining and tests following the crash of Flight 235 that killed 35 people. The CAA yesterday ordered the fleet’s pilots to undergo retraining in a process that may take about four days.

Aviation authorities had been concerned even before the Feb. 4 crash in Taipei that fast turnaround times for the airline’s fleet of short-haul twin turboprop aircraft could lead to further safety breaches, according to three people familiar with the new rules, who asked not to be named because they’re not authorized to speak about ongoing investigations.

'Minimum Time'

Under the new regulation, TransAsia would be issued a warning letter if found in breach of the minimum time requirements, Lin said. If further violations follow within six months, the airline can be fined up to NT$3 million ($95,400).

Taiwan’s civil aviation rules require that record books be kept for both flight operations and maintenance.

The maintenance logs must be endorsed by a certified mechanic and accepted by the pilot-in-command before each flight.

Transit time measures the duration when an aircraft’s wheels are in blocks at the gate, allowing passengers to disembark and embark while ground crew clean, restock and refuel the aircraft, and pilots inspect fuel and conduct pre-flight checks. Block time measures the duration from when the wheel blocks are removed to start the flight to when they’re replaced again at the next destination.

'Engine Warning'

At least 35 people have been confirmed dead and eight are missing after the pilots responded to engine warning alarms before the aircraft plunged into Keelung River at 10:54 a.m. local time. The right engine showed a warning alarm 37 seconds after takeoff, the left engine had its fuel supply shut off manually a few seconds later, according to investigators.

Although flight data show the right engine was operating normally, a warning went off and the propeller was automatically switched to feathering, a setting that turns its blades parallel to the wind to reduce drag and is similar to idling a motor, Thomas Wang, managing director of the Aviation Safety Council said Friday.

Soon after, the other engine had its propeller setting manually reduced before fuel was cut off, Wang said. Investigators aren’t yet able to explain the warnings, engine operations or the crew’s action, Wang said.