TransAsia starts pilot retraining after deadly crash, cancels dozens of flights
8 Feb 2015 12:57 AM GMT
TransAsia Airways cancelled dozens of flights on Saturday, the first day of a pilot retraining programme, as rescuers retrieved five more bodies from the river in Taiwan where the plane crashed.
Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) ordered all the airline’s staff who fly ATR planes to take tests on operating the aircraft after it emerged the pilots may have inexplicably shut off one of the engines before Flight GE235 went down last week. “Starting today, all of TransAsia’s 71 ATR pilots will undergo tests to be carried out by the CAA and third-party professional units for an estimated period of four days,” the carrier said in a statement.
“As a result, some of our domestic flights will be adjusted,” it said, explaining that 90 domestic flights will be cancelled by Monday.
Pilots who fail the tests will be grounded immediately for an indefinite period of time pending further qualification training, according to the CAA.
On Wednesday, a TransAsia ATR 72-600 plane plunged into a river in Taipei with 53 passengers and five crew members on board. Forty people were killed, fifteen survived and rescuers are still searching for another three who remain missing in the airline’s second deadly crash in seven months.
Five bodies were found downstream of the crash site, including one in flight attendant’s uniform, during a blanket search of the river by hundreds of rescuers and divers today, Taipei city fire department said.
Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) ordered all the airline’s staff who fly ATR planes to take tests on operating the aircraft after it emerged the pilots may have inexplicably shut off one of the engines before Flight GE235 went down last week. “Starting today, all of TransAsia’s 71 ATR pilots will undergo tests to be carried out by the CAA and third-party professional units for an estimated period of four days,” the carrier said in a statement.
“As a result, some of our domestic flights will be adjusted,” it said, explaining that 90 domestic flights will be cancelled by Monday.
Pilots who fail the tests will be grounded immediately for an indefinite period of time pending further qualification training, according to the CAA.
On Wednesday, a TransAsia ATR 72-600 plane plunged into a river in Taipei with 53 passengers and five crew members on board. Forty people were killed, fifteen survived and rescuers are still searching for another three who remain missing in the airline’s second deadly crash in seven months.
Five bodies were found downstream of the crash site, including one in flight attendant’s uniform, during a blanket search of the river by hundreds of rescuers and divers today, Taipei city fire department said.
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