Pilots had daring record: captain
China Airlines pilots had a record of making daring decisions to land in bad weather conditions, one of the company's captains alleged yesterday.
The Taiwanese senior captain, who declined to be named, revealed the problems in an interview with a television station, which is part of the Eastern Multimedia Group, in Taiwan yesterday.
He said one of his colleagues had decided to land in the United Arab Emirates in zero visibility in June last year. The airport management later lodged a complaint with China Airlines.
Captain Gerardo Lettich, the Italian pilot of the MD-11 aircraft, which crashed and overturned at Chek Lap Kok last week, is alleged to have ignored a call by his co-pilot to abort the landing seconds before the crash.
Flight CI642 struck its right wing on the runway and overturned in flames on August 22 when a No 8 signal was hoisted for Typhoon Sam.
Three people were killed and 214 injured. Last night, 22 remained in hospital, one in critical condition.
The Taiwanese captain alleged the problematic management of the airline was partly to blame for the poor safety record, and said the current flight operation management had committed serious air safety mistakes in the past.
The captain said MD-11 aircraft had been involved in several accidents in the past.
China Airlines was not available for comment yesterday, but has previously said it had stringent criteria in recruiting pilots and retraining pilots on landing skills.
Hong Kong's deputy director of civil aviation, Au Kang-yuen, said officials would study accidents involving MD-11 aircraft in their investigation into the Chek Lap Kok crash.
He declined to comment on allegations last week that the co-pilot had given the wrong data about the speed of the crosswinds to the captain.
Mr Au said it was international practice that pilots needed to calculate the speed of crosswinds themselves in line with data provided by the control tower.
Investigations continued yesterday as workers removed two-thirds of the wreckage from the runway to a vacant site two kilometres away. Workers worked overnight to cut the aircraft into three and build a road across the grass at the crash site to ensure access for cranes and other vehicles.
While the 25-tonne nose and 30-tonne tail were removed yesterday afternoon, staff were working last night to remove the remaining 40-tonne mid-section.
An Airport Authority spokesman said they were hoping to reopen the south runway 24 hours after the wreckage was removed, damage was repaired and the runway was inspected.
The Airport Authority said the removal had been delayed by bad weather.
Acting airport management director Howard Eng said: 'This has probably been the most difficult recovery operation carried out in Hong Kong due to the aircraft being inverted and the very extensive structural damage it incurred during the accident.'
