TransAsia flight crashes into river after clipping a bridge

[gregjrichards]

OH GOOD GRIEF. People really suck sometimes. It just boggles the mind.

I know taking selfies at locations of disasters and like Auschwitz baffles me. This is a terrible tragedy I am surprised so many survived and people on the ground weren't killed.

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A bank clerk performed CPR on his two-year-old son after finding him lifeless inside the submerged cabin of the crashed TransAsia plane, according to a relative.

Chris Lin said his older brother Lin Ming-wei, 37, managed to free wife Chiang Yu-ying, 34, before frantically searching for baby Lin Jih-yao after the aircraft clipped a bridge and plunged into a river in Taipei, Taiwan.

Lin said the two-year-old boy was not breathing when his father found him after at least three minutes in the water on Wednesday.

"He saved his wife first, let her escape from the cabin first before looking for his son," he said. "When he found him, he had no heartbeat. His lips were turning purple. He had no sign of life. So he immediately did CPR on him. Luckily, he recovered his heartbeat. Then my brother escaped from the cabin together with his son and waited for rescue."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/transasia-crash-dad-saved-baby-son-wife-submerged-plane-n300696

 

[PrairieWind]

That is an amazing story about the man and his son. I hope the child is going to be ok. I can't even imagine what that man must have felt when he found his baby son lifeless.

 

[MsFacetious]

More about the same family:

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=33364176&ni...wife-from-transasia-plane-crash&s_cid=queue-8

But a noise made Lin uneasy, and shortly before take-off, he asked cabin staff if they could take an empty row on the rear right hand side of the plane, which was bound for Kinmen, an island in the Taiwan Strait, local media reported.

Minutes later, Lin was fighting his way out of the plane's wreckage and searching frantically for his two-year-old son in the shallow, murky waters of the Keelung River.

When he found him three minutes later, his lips were blue and his heart wasn't beating. Lin gave him CPR.

"He is my only child. I absolutely have to save his life —-I can't lose him," the Liberty Times quoted him as saying.

His son survived, as did his wife, although both are being treated in hospital. Lin emerged unscathed and was the only one of 15 survivors that didn't need medical treatment.

Lin puts his family's survival down to the last-minute decision to switch seats.

Initial reports indicated that it was the left side of the turboprop plane which was seriously damaged in the crash, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported. The Lins were originally seated on the left.

 

[Nova]

OH GOOD GRIEF. People really suck sometimes. It just boggles the mind.

Doesn't it though? I can't imagine taking "selfies" at a sight where people had died. But we know the same thing would happen here in the U.S. This wasn't some unique practice of the Taiwanese. (Nor did you say it was, of course.)

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Shortly after the doomed flight's takeoff before 11 a.m. Wednesday, one of the pilots issued a "Mayday, mayday, engine flameout" distress call. Flameout normally indicates that flames have been extinguished in the combustion chamber of the engine, shutting it down and not driving the propeller.

Video images of Flight GE235's final moments in the air captured on car dashboard cameras show the left engine's propeller at standstill as the aircraft turned sharply, its wings going vertical and clipping a highway bridge before plunging into the river.

Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council has started investigating causes for the crash, a process likely to take up to a year but with few obstacles expected.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/transas...pilots-clutching-controls-engines-lost-power/

 

[nrdsb4]

Shortly after the doomed flight's takeoff before 11 a.m. Wednesday, one of the pilots issued a "Mayday, mayday, engine flameout" distress call. Flameout normally indicates that flames have been extinguished in the combustion chamber of the engine, shutting it down and not driving the propeller.

Video images of Flight GE235's final moments in the air captured on car dashboard cameras show the left engine's propeller at standstill as the aircraft turned sharply, its wings going vertical and clipping a highway bridge before plunging into the river.

Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council has started investigating causes for the crash, a process likely to take up to a year but with few obstacles expected.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/transas...pilots-clutching-controls-engines-lost-power/

Listened to an interview with a pilot on CNN yesterday and he said it's absolutely possible to continue to fly that particular airplane with one of its engines out.

So I wonder what else may have contributed to this tragedy.

 

[MsFacetious]

Did Pilot Stop The Wrong Engine?

The pilots of TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 grappled with problems with both engines before the plane clipped a bridge and crashed into a river, killing dozens of people, Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council said Friday.

The stall warning went off in the cockpit five times, starting from about 37 seconds after takeoff, the aviation agency told reporters, citing information from the aircraft's flight recorders.

The two engines on the ATR 72 turboprop aircraft stopped producing power one after the other, leaving the plane flying without thrust for more than a minute, according to the agency.

The alarms sounded for the first engine that ceased power output, but the crew was then heard discussing switching off the other engine before it also stopped generating power.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/06/asia/taiwan-transasia-plane-crash/index.html

It wouldn't be the first time that happened.
That is what happened in British Midland Flight 92. They shut down the good engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kegworth_air_disaster

 

[RT51]

I wouldn't be surprised if the wrong engine was shut down. Turbo props can fly with one engine. I was actually a volunteer passenger on a test flight where one engine was purposely shut down. (My younger days when I was brave!) The engine was then restarted but for a while we only flew on one engine.

 

[MsFacetious]

Taiwan grounds ATR 72s amid safety concerns

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/05/asia/atr-72-safety-record/

 

[panthera]

'I fainted the moment it hit us': Driver of taxi hit by plane as it fell from the sky and plunged into a river in Taiwan tells of his lucky escape... as locals pose for SELFIES near the wreckage

Two-year-old boy one of four children pulled from the wreckage after surviving the horror crash on Wednesday

TransAsia GE235 passenger plane with 58 people on board plunged into Keeling River in capital city Taipei

At least 31 people have been confirmed dead, according to Taiwanese Civil Aviation Authority, and 12 are missing

Three women were seen happily posing in front of the rescue operation as they took pictures

An emergency rescue operation with over 1000 personnel, including soldiers is continuing

There were 53 passengers and five crew on board, 31 of whom were tourists from mainland China

It crushed a taxi, injuring the driver, before clipping a freeway overpass and plunging into the river

Investigators are examining the plane's blackbox retrieved from the wreckage

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...pose-SELFIES-near-wreckage.html#ixzz3QrmAHBOh

BBM

Appalling how selfish people can be. Would they be happily smiling if their loved ones had been aboard that plane and injured or killed? Would they want strangers posing as they did if THEY were the victims?

:maddening:

MOO

 

[panthera]

Listened to an interview with a pilot on CNN yesterday and he said it's absolutely possible to continue to fly that particular airplane with one of its engines out.

So I wonder what else may have contributed to this tragedy.

My speculation would be that both engines didn't have power and my question is if the flight crew experienced problems only 37 sec. into the flight why they didn't attempt to return to the airport rather than continue flying. Granted it is fortunate the plane went into the river minimizing the loss of life, however, I am curious if this tragedy could have been avoided altogether.



MOO