David Learmount/LONDON
A Philippine Airlines (PAL) Airbus Industrie A320 ploughed off the end of the runway at Bacolod, Philippines, on 22 March, killing three people on the ground. Large numbers of passengers and people living just outside the airport, where the aircraft came to a halt, were seriously injured, according to the Philippine Air Transportation Office (ATO).
The accident has further highlighted growing concerns over the poor airline safety record of the Pacific Rim. The region has suffered 14 fatal airline accidents in the past 12 months, killing 1,029 people. By comparison, the decade annual average number of fatalities for the world is only 1,243.
The continuing string of crashes in the region is apparently taking its toll on traffic. Taiwanese newspapers report that flights are leaving half empty. The head of Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration has also resigned.
The most recent incidents include the Formosa Airlines Saab 340 accident on 18 March which killed 11 passengers and crew - the carrier's fourth fatal accident in five years - and the 1 February crash of a China Airlines Airbus A300 which killed 196 people on board and six on the ground.
Concerns have been further heightened by an incident on 23 March, when a passenger on a Great China Airlines de Havilland Canada Dash 8 attempted suicide by pouring petrol in the aisle and trying to set it alight. He was successfully restrained.
The Philippines is also recovering from the 2 February accident to a Cebu Pacific domestic charter flight McDonnell Douglas DC-9 which killed all 104 on board. At the time the regional representative of the International Civil Aviation Organisation castigated the region's airlines for failing to follow up on specific regional safety initiatives first recommended four years ago.
The PAL overrun at Bacolod appears, from preliminary investigation, to have been caused by an "abnormally fast" approach and a touchdown more than half way along the 2,100m (6,890ft) runway, says ATO chief Carlos Tanega.
Meanwhile, the US National Transportation Safety Board has begun the public hearing for the Korean Air Boeing 747-300 crash on 6 August, 1997, on approach to Agana Airport, Guam.
The hearing has clarified that the air traffic control radar minimum safety altitude warning system was faulty at the time, and confirms that the instrument landing system glideslope was out of service for maintenance.
Source: Flight International
