China Airlines Flight 642

Mandarin Airlines MD-11 (B -151 )

China Airlines Flight 642 was a scheduled flight from the old airport in Bangkok ( Bangkok Don Mueang Airport today ) to Taipei on Taiwan with a stopover at Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong. Due to strong crosswinds the plane came from when landing in Hong Kong from the runway, 3 passengers were killed.

Aircraft

The flight was carried out by its subsidiary Mandarin Airlines. The McDonnell Douglas MD -11 with serial number 48468 was delivered on November 7, 1992, China Airlines and flew with the registration B -150, since 17 July 1993, Mandarin Airlines.

Expiration

Due to the bad weather conditions in Hong Kong, the crew had considered to fly directly to Taiwan, should the situation in Hong Kong would prove to be unfavorable for a landing. After the plane had approached Hong Kong and from the airport received the information about the weather on the ground and the wind conditions, was the crew of the opinion that a landing in Hong Kong is still possible. Before the arrival of Flight 642 four planes had aborted the landing, five flew to another airport and twelve aircraft landed successfully.

Around 18:43 clock (local time) on 22 August 1999 he was the attempted landing on runway 25L. At the same time, the center of Typhoon Sam was about 50 km northeast of the airport and there were wind speeds recorded up to 140 km / hr. In an altitude of 700 feet the crew was transmitted by the tower one last Wind Information: The wind came about from 320 °, which is 90 ° from the right with a speed of 28 knots, with wind gusts reached 36 knots. Although the limit for crosswinds on a wet runway is 24 knots on this aircraft, put the crew continued their landing attempt. During the last portion of the landing, the machine tipped over to the right and sat on the right rear suspension very hard on. The engine number 3 it touched the runway, after which both suspension and the right wing tore off from the body of the machine. The plane turned around its longitudinal axis and slid burning of the runway. When it came to a stop, it was on the roof, the rear of the machine was on fire and was on a grassy area, about 1100 meters from the touchdown point of the runway. The right wing was found about 90 meters from the nose of the aircraft on a taxiway. Although the fire directed at significant damage to the rear of the aircraft, but was cleared by the heavy rain and the fast arriving airport fire brigade.

In the accident three passengers were killed. All crew members survived. It 200 people were injured on board.

Investigations

The investigation report concludes that the accident was due to pilot error. The pilot was not able to slow the rate of descent is too high. As a result of the investigation, China Airlines were recommended a number of improvements to the pilot training.