ANDREW DOYLE / LONDON & NICHOLAS IONIDES / SINGAPORE
Row over findings of 1999 China Airlines crash inquiry leads to establishment of new body
Hong Kong's first-ever aircraft accident review board is being established to evaluate the findings of a disputed report into the fatal August 1999 crash of a China Airlines (CAL) Boeing MD-11 at Hong Kong International Airport.
The former UK colony's Civil Aviation Department (CAD) completed its accident investigation report and sent it to interested parties in April 2002. Industry sources say it concluded the crash was the result of the "captain's inability to arrest the aircraft's high rate of descent at 50ft [15m] radar altitude".
CAL disputed the findings and filed a notice of review with Hong Kong's department of justice, forcing the CAD to suspend publication of its final report and requiring a board of review to be set up. It is due to convene on 17 November.
Under the Hong Kong Civil Aviation (Investigation of Accidents) Regulations, a party whose "reputation is likely to be adversely affected" by an accident report may dispute the findings of an investigation.
CAL says it will present evidence at the hearings that counter the CAD's findings. The CAD has refused to say what is in its report into the 22 August 1999 crash, which occurred while the MD-11 was landing during a severe storm. The aircraft turned over and came to rest on its back.
The Taiwanese airline and the aircraft's Italian captain have claimed that windshear was the prime factor behind the crash, in which three people were killed. The airport sits on reclaimed land off Lantau Island surrounded by 1,000m-high peaks. CAL will also argue that the airport failed to provide sufficient warning of the presence of windshear in the area.
The airline says it will be presenting factual data to support its case as well as offer opinion from "neutral parties".
"In that accident the data shows that there was windshear," says CAL. "Our experts said that nobody could safely land an MD-11 that day under those conditions - we can prove that. We will ask that the report takes out one phrase, and that is that it was a pilot error. This was a windshear problem, not a pilot error."
The justice department says the review board's hearings will be open to the public.
Hong Kong regulations require the review board to be chaired by a magistrate, legal officer, or barrister or solicitor, and include one or more assessor with aeronautical or aeronautical engineering qualifications. After the review is completed, the board will submit a report to Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, either confirming or rejecting, in whole or in part, the findings of the CAD's investigation.
Source: Flight International
