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165 Safe After Plane Explodes
in Japan
DEBBY WU
AP
Monday Aug 20, 2007
Taiwan grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-800 jetliners after
a China Airlines plane exploded in a fireball Monday on the tarmac
in Okinawa, and officials said a fuel leak may be to blame. All
165 passengers and crew scrambled down emergency chutes or jumped
from cockpit windows _ some just seconds before the blast.
Passengers described a normal landing after Flight CI-120 landed
on the resort island of Okinawa from the Taiwanese capital of
Taipei. But as the jet came to a stop near the terminal, they
said that the left engine began smoking, followed by the right
one.
Watch the video here.
Okinawa Airport traffic controllers had received no report from
the pilot indicating anything was wrong as the plane came in to
land and even as it stopped near the terminal to unload passengers,
said Japanese Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura.
When the smoke started billowing outside the plane, the cabin
crew already was standing by the doors, said a passenger who gave
his surname as Tsang and identified himself as a guide for Taipei's
Southeast Tours.
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"The passengers saw the smoke first and they began to yell
and demand that the doors be opened," he said.
Tamura said the fire started "when the left engine exploded
a minute after the aircraft entered the parking spot."
Inside the plane, passengers recalled a scene of panic.
"When the smoke started, people were just pushing and shoving
each other," said an unidentified female Taiwanese passenger.
"It was total chaos."
The main explosion, which engulfed the center of the aircraft
in flames, occurred after the passengers slid down the emergency
chutes at the front and rear of the plane.
Screams erupted as passengers raced across the tarmac to get
away from the burning plane, and emergency personnel moved in
to fight the fire.
A figure believed to be the pilot hung onto the cockpit window
for several seconds before dropping to the tarmac and sprinting
away from the exploding plane.
There were no serious injuries among the 157 passengers, including
two infants, and crew of eight, the Taiwan-based China Airlines
said.
A Taiwanese woman said she was stricken with fear as she slid
down the chute.
"I was running and crying, running and crying" said
the woman, who declined to give her name.
Another passenger who gave only his surname, Chen, said he started
running the moment he slid off the plane. "I ran so hard
my sock tore," he said. "I think I got my life back."
Tsang said the evacuation took no more than 90 seconds.
"About 30 seconds after I slid down the chute and began
to run toward the terminal, I heard two big explosions,"
he said. "I had no idea it would be this serious."
Video from Japanese broadcaster NHK showed a lone firefighter trying
to douse the fire immediately after the explosion. But the plane
was quickly rocked by two more explosions, which brought the fuselage
crashing to the tarmac.
China Airlines spokesman Sun Hung-wen said "the plane landed
safely so we are still checking why there was a fire."
A statement on the airline's Web site said the plane "caught
fire during taxi operations at Okinawa Airport."
Capt. Yu Chien-kuo, 48, has been flying 737-800s for the airline
for six years, the statement said.
Initial reports from ground personnel said a fuel leak from the
right engine could have led to the explosions, according to another
Japanese Transport Ministry official, Fumio Yasukawa.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board sent two investigators
to Japan to look into the fire, spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said
in Washington.
China Airlines has a troubled safety record. One of its 747s
crashed in 2002 as it flew from Taipei to Hong Kong, leading to
225 deaths. Accidents involving the airline killed about 450 people
in the 1990s.
"We are prepared to do our best to get to the bottom of
this incident," China Airlines president Zhao Guo-shi told
reporters at the airport. "I apologize for the trouble we
have caused our passengers."
The fire was extinguished after about an hour, leaving the aircraft
sagging on its side, charred in the middle, with part of its roof
burned away.
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration head Chang Kuo-cheng
said authorities ordered China Airlines and its subsidiary Mandarin
Airlines to ground their 13 other Boeing 737-800s pending a thorough
inspection.
Japanese aviation authorities also ordered an emergency inspection
of all Boeing 737-800 planes owned by Japanese carriers, as well
as some 737-700 models that have similar engines.
As of July 31, there were about 1,220 737-800s flying worldwide,
with more than 1,000 of the aircraft on order.
Boeing has delivered more than 5,400 737s since the plane entered
commercial service in 1968. Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said he
could not say exactly how many of the single-aisle jets are still
flying, but noted that a "significant" number of older
models have been retired.
Airlines started flying the 737-800 in 1998, about four years
after Boeing won its first order for the plane.
The plane that exploded had CFM 56 engines, made by CFM International,
a joint venture between GE Aviation, a unit of General Electric
Co., and France's Snecma, said Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx. All
737-800s are built with the same engine.
The Japan Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission
requested technical assistance from Boeing, Proulx said. The Boeing
investigator is expected in Japan by Wednesday.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation
Safety Board also sent in investigators.
Two passengers _ a 7-year-old girl and a man in his 50s _ were
hospitalized because they did not feel well, but they were uninjured,
said fire official Hiroki Shimabukuro. A ground engineer who was
knocked off his feet by the blast was not hurt, the Transport
Ministry said.
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