Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 26 October 1989 |
Summary | Takeoff from wrong runway, wrong turn after airborne due to pilot error |
Site | Chiashan mountain range, 5,5 km (3.4 mls) north off Hualien Airport, Taiwan |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Boeing 737-209 |
Operator | China Airlines |
IATA flight No. | CI204 |
ICAO flight No. | CAL204 |
Call sign | DYNASTY 204 |
Registration | B-180 |
Flight origin | Hualien Airport |
Destination | Taoyuan International Airport |
Occupants | 54 |
Passengers | 47 |
Crew | 7 |
Fatalities | 54 |
Survivors | 0 |
China Airlines Flight 204 (CI204/CAL204) was a Boeing 737-200 that crashed into a mountain after takeoff from Hualien Airport, Taiwan, on 26 October 1989. The crash killed all 54 passengers and crew on board the aircraft.
The aircraft was a Boeing 737-209, registration B-180, which first flew on 3 December 1986 and was delivered to the airline two weeks later. [1]
Flight 204 departed Hualien Airport on a short-haul domestic flight to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taoyuan International Airport) on the island of Taiwan [2] with 47 passengers and seven crew members aboard. Ten minutes after takeoff, the plane collided with a mountain in the Chiashan range at an altitude of approximately 2,100 metres (6,900 ft), 5.5 km (3.4 mi) north of the airport. All 54 passengers and crew members were killed. [1] [3] [4]
The major cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error, as the experienced pilot (15 years with China Airlines) and a novice copilot departed from the wrong runway, a mistake compounded by ground-control personnel who failed to spot the error. The aircraft then flew the climb-out procedure for the correct runway, and as a result, the aircraft made a left turn toward the mountains rather than a right turn toward the sea. [3] [5]