Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 22 August 1981 |
Summary | Metal fatigue cracking and severe corrosion, leading to explosive decompression and in-flight break-up |
Site | Near Sanyi Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Boeing 737-222 |
Operator | Far Eastern Air Transport |
IATA flight No. | FE103 |
ICAO flight No. | FEA103 |
Call sign | FAR EASTERN 103 |
Registration | B-2603 |
Flight origin | Taipei Songshan Airport |
Destination | Kaohsiung International Airport |
Occupants | 110 |
Passengers | 102 |
Crew | 8 |
Fatalities | 110 (109 initially) |
Survivors | 0 (1 initially) |
Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103 was a flight from Taiwan Taipei Songshan Airport to Kaohsiung International Airport that crashed on 22 August 1981, killing all 110 people on board. The Boeing 737-222 aircraft disintegrated in midair and crashed in the township of Sanyi, Miaoli. It is also called the Sanyi Air Disaster. The crash is the third-deadliest aviation accident on the Taiwanese soil, behind China Airlines Flight 676 and China Airlines Flight 611. [1]
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-222, with line number 151 and manufacturer's serial number 19939, made its first flight in 1969, later delivered to United Airlines as N9058U, and named City of San Diego before being acquired by FAT in 1976 and registered as B-2603. [2]
The aircraft had previously lost cabin pressure on 5 August; and earlier on the day of the crash, it had departed Songshan Airport, but the crew aborted the flight 10 minutes later for the same reason. After repairs were made, the aircraft departed Songshan Airport again bound for Kaohsiung International Airport. 14 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft suffered an explosive decompression and disintegrated. The wreckage was scattered across an area 4 miles (6 km) long, located some 94 miles (151 km) south of Taipei. The nose section landed in Sanyi Township, Miaoli County. Other debris landed in the townships of Yuanli, Tongluo, and Tongxiao. Of the 110 people on board, one passenger was found alive but died on the way to a hospital; in the end, no one aboard survived. [3] After the accident, due to it occurring in a mountainous region, road traffic was backed up. The remains of the victims were driven to the Shengxing railway station, from where they were transported by train. [4]
Although early speculation indicated that the crash was caused by an explosive device, an investigation by the Republic of China Civil Aeronautics Board concluded that severe corrosion led to a pressure-hull rupture. The severe corrosion was due to the many pressurization flight cycles the aircraft had experienced, and that cracks produced were probably undetected. [1]
Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Taiwan | 82 | 8 | 90 |
Japan | 18 | 0 | 18 |
United States | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Total | 102 | 8 | 110 |
China Airlines is the state-owned flag carrier of Republic of China (Taiwan). It is one of Taiwan's two major airlines along with EVA Air. It is headquartered in Taoyuan International Airport and operates over 1,400 flights weekly – including 91 pure cargo flights – to 102 cities across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. Carrying over 19 million passengers and 5700 tons of cargo in 2017, the carrier was the 33rd largest airline in the world in terms of revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) and 10th largest in terms of freight revenue ton kilometers (FRTK).
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