TransAsia Airways Flight 235 Air Crash Investigation Report

Acknowledgement 

The preliminary report for the accident has came out, final report will issued by april 2016. Transasia flight 235 used aerospatiale fleet, ATR 72-600 clipped the bridge before plunging to the Keelung river. The preliminary report issued by Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council. The crash that killed 43 on February 2014 came to conclusion after the council studied the black boxes.

The Cause


After take off accident normally caused by aerodynamic stall which is there is no sufficient lift to get the plane airborne. Just like previous events, engine/s flame out was the prime suspect. In this case, the council found that only an engine was flame out after the take off which is less than a minute. once the plane had climbed 1,200 feet, a master warning sounded, and a display showed that there had been an engine flameout, or power failure, in engine 2 (the right side engine).

For ATR 72 flying with an engine not a problem. The turboprop engines attached to the plane have unique character than other jet engines. If the jet engines of the turboprop shut down or surge or malfunctioning, the propeller will taking charge, this feature could healping the plane gliding if the engines flame out. From the flight data recorder,suggest that,engine no 1 which is at the left side still functioning.ATR 72 capable to generate lift although with an engine.

By the right configuration such as feathering (adjusting the degree of propeller blade to increase thrust and decrease drag force) the propeller could sustain the plane thrust and lift sufficient to pilot the plane climb gaining safety altitude and make an emergency landing to the airport.

What goes wrong ?


Air crash did not occurs with a problem, it occurs when multiple occasion of problem taking part. As we know, flight 235 could fly to safety because the left engine still working. There something missing part is play the role for the flight plunging into the river. The preliminary report suggest that from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), there was shocking phrase came out from the pilot. 

"Wow, pulled back the wrong side throttle."

These are the words of the captain of TransAsia Airways Flight GE235, eight seconds before the plane clipped a bridge and plunged into a Taiwanese river mere minutes after takeoff.The latest report by Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council into the February crash confirms that the captain of the ATR 72-600 turboprop aircraft mistakenly switched off the plane's working engine after the other lost power.

The Pilot error ?

The investigators will come out with what causing the crash  by eliminating and combining factors such as mechanical failure, bad weather, hijacking, or pilot error. The study of two black boxes suggest that the ability of the pilot to handle the emergency procedures questioned. The pilot switched off the wrong engine was the trigger for the worst situation.

The mistake was not noticed until about two minutes later, when the pilot managed to restore some power to engine 1, but it was too late to avoid the crash. 
In procedures switch off the flame out engine will give the chance for the pilot focusing for the functioning engine.

In this case the left engine. When the pilot switched off the functioning engine, with insufficient thrust generates the plane entering aerodynamic stall, which is no lift generates on the wings plus with the drag force built up from static unfeathered propeller, these characters combined to plunge the plane according to gravity rules,


Who is flying the flight 235 ?

According to records provided to the investigators by TransAsia, the captain had previously served in the Taiwan Air Force as a pilot.

He worked for another airline briefly after leaving the Air Force, before joining TransAsia in August 2010.

He served as a first officer in the ATR 72-500 fleet, before completing upgrade training and being promoted to captain in August 2014. In November that year, he completed further training to transfer to the ATR 72-600 fleet as captain.

TransAsia training records show that during his upgrade training in April 2014, he failed a simulator check, performing unsatisfactorily on the abnormal engine start section, among others.

Among the areas of concern was that he demonstrated insufficient knowledge of dealing with engine flameout at takeoff, the instructor noted.

The pilot was given another session and qualified as captain after passing the simulator check.

History of Transasia's Crash

In July 2014, 48 people were killed when a TransAsia ATR 72-500 crashed when approaching to land in bad weather on Penghu Island, Taiwan.


*This article based on the author's points of view not from the professional investigator or aviation analyst. The view based on author's own study and reading from varieties sources.