China Airlines Flight 611
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China Airlines Flight 611 (CAL611, CI611) flew from Chiang Kai Shek International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan to Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, China. The flight crashed, killing all aboard on May 25 2002.
On May 25, the flight took off at 2:50pm local time for the 1 hour 20 minutes flight to Hong Kong.
About 20 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft disappeared from radar screens, suggesting the aircraft had experienced an in flight breakup at FL350, near the Penghu Islands at Taiwan Strait, killing all 19 crew members and 206 passengers. 190 of the deceased are Chinese from Taiwan, 14 Chinese from Hong Kong, 1 Singaporean, 9 Chinese from Mainland, and 1 Swede. 3 were infants. 114 were in a group tour organized by five travel agencies to Hong Kong or the Mainland. The plane was expected to arrive at 4:28 PM.
At 5:05 P.M., a military C130 aircraft spotted a crashed airliner 20 nautical miles northeast of Makung. Oil slicks were also spotted at 5:05 PM. The first body was found at 6:10 PM.
B-18255, the Boeing 747-209B that had crashed on May 25, was 22 years old, and this was to have been its last flight before being sold to a small Thailand carrier for $US1.45 million.
Searchers recovered 162 bodies and 15 percent of the wreckage, including part of the cockpit, and found no signs of burns, explosives or gunshots.
There was no distress signal or communication sent out prior to the crash. Radar data suggests that the aircraft broke into four pieces while at FL350. This theory is supported by the fact that articles which would have been found inside the aircraft (magazines, etc.) were found up to 80 miles from the crash site. The weather and climate were normal. The CVR showed that the pilot did not detect any anomaly and was humming the famous oldie tune "When Will You Be Back?" by Teresa Teng.
The flight data recorder from Flight 611 shows that the plane began gaining altitude at a significantly faster rate in the 27 seconds before the plane broke apart, although the extra gain in altitude was well within the plane's design limits. The plane was supposed to be leveling off then as it approached its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Shortly before the breakup, one of the aircraft's four engines began providing slightly less thrust. By coincidence, the same engine is the only one that has been recovered so far from the sea floor.
The final investigation report found that the accident was the result of "metal fatigue" due to inadequate maintenance after a previous incident. The report finds that on February 7 1980, the accident aircraft suffered a tail strike occurrence in Hong Kong. The aircraft was then ferried back to Taiwan on the same day un-pressurized and a temporary repair was conducted the day after. A permanent repair was conducted on May 23 through 26, 1980. However, the permanent repair of the tail strike was not accomplished in accordance with the Boeing SRM, in that the area of damaged skin in Section 46 was not removed (trimmed) and the repair doubler did not extend sufficiently beyond the entire damaged area to restore the structural strength. Consequently, after repeating cycles of depressurization and pressurization during flights, the weakened hull started to crack gradually and finally broke open in flight on that flight, exactly 22 years after the faulty repair has been applied to the damaged tail. An explosive depressurization of the aircraft occurred once the crack was broken, causing the complete disintegration of the aircraft mid-air.
This accident is deemed similar to the Japan Airlines Flight 123 accident in Tokyo in 1983, which also involved a Boeing 747 aircraft with faulty repair work done after a tail strike many years before the final demise of the aircraft. That Japan Airlines accident remains now as the most serious single aircraft accident in aviation history, with more than 500 passengers killed.
Many family members of victims blamed the maintenance inregularities on the supposed "profit first, last and only" corporate philosophy of the airline. China Airlines has however steadfastly denied these charges.
What Happened to the Flight Number?
Flight 611 no longer exists. Shortly after the accident, China Airlines changed the flight number to 619, which now serves the Taipei - Hong Kong route along with existing flights 601, 603, 605, 607, 609, 613, 615, and 617.
See also: Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners