Investigators baffled over why CAL plane crashed

Investigators baffled over why CAL plane crashed

TAIPEI (AFP): Investigators were stymied yesterday over why a
China Airlines Airbus crashed into a row of houses six days ago
killing 202 people, despite the recovery of initial data from one
of the plane's "black boxes."

Chief investigator Chang Kuo-cheng said an initial analysis of
CAL Flight 676's last moments had been recovered from the cockpit
voice recorder but he would not elaborate on any possible
findings.

"The decoding of the cockpit voice recorder has been
completed," Chang was quoted as saying on television late
yesterday, adding that more information was expected with the
decoding of other flight data.

"The flight data recorder is expected to be brought home on
Feb. 25" from Australia where it was being analyzed, said Chang,
deputy director of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration
(CAA).

Officials have said the information contained in the "black
boxes" could prove crucial to explaining why the Airbus 300-600
jet, carrying 182 passengers and 14 crew, slammed into the row of
houses at the edge of the airport and killed all on board as well
as six on the ground.

Authorities have been tight-lipped about possible causes of
the crash amid numerous rumors in the local press.

Chang angrily rejected speculation in a television report,
which quoted unnamed sources at the plane's makers Airbus
Industrie, that human error and the weather were to blame.

"Shortly before and after the crash, many other planes had
landed there," Chang told AFP, dismissing speculation that heavy
cloud cover at the time over Chiang Kai-shek International
Airport was a factor.

"I wonder why they said that, before the investigation is
complete," said Chang, adding "maybe to shrug off their
responsibilities."

But Airbus Industrie regional communications manager Sean Lee
told AFP from Singapore yesterday: "I think this has somehow
gotten misreported. We can't speculate on causes."

Local television has been running computer simulations on the
last moments of China Airlines (CAL) Flight 676, focusing on
dialogue between captain Kang Lung-lin and the control tower as
well as on witness reports that the plane was seen "veering left"
during its final approach to land.

But analysts have called the simulations inaccurate and said
they were probably based on an accident four years ago involving
another CAL Airbus 300-600 which crashed at Japan's Nagoya
airport, killing 264 people.

The television simulations show CAL Flight 676 on final
approach veering off center, and then suddenly losing altitude
with the plane's tail hitting the ground hard and its forward
momentum slamming it into the houses.