China Airlines Flight 611
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On 25 May, the flight took off at 3:08 PM on At about 3:28 P.M., the aircraft experienced an in flight breakup near the Penghu Islands twenty minutes from takeoff,
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killing all 19 crew members and 206 passengers. 190 of the deceased are Taiwanese, 14 Hong Konger, 1 Singaporean, 9 Mainlanderss, and 1 Swede. 3 were infants. 114 were in a group tour organized by five travel agencies to Hong Kong or Mainland. The plane was expected to arrive at 4:28 PM.
At 5:05 P.M., a military aircraft C130 was spotted 20 nautical miles northeast of Makung. Oil slicks were also spotted at 5:05 PM. The first body was found in 6:10 PM.
B-18255, the Boeing 747-209B that had crashed on 25 May was 22 years old and was intended to be given to Thailand the following month.
There was no distress signal or communications was sent out prior to the crash. The weather and climate were normal. The CVR showed that pilot did not detect any anomaly and was humming the famous oldie tune "When Shall You Return?" (何日君再来) by Teresa Teng.
The China Airlines representative said it was due to "fatigue of the metal", which maintenance could not have picked up.