China pide explicaciones a EE.UU. por autorizar la venta de armas a Taiwan

La venta está cifrada en 1.668 millones e incluye dos fragatas y misiles antitanque. El gobierno chino ha convocado al encargado de negocios de la embajada de EE.UU. El presidente taiwanés destacó las "buenas relaciones entre EE.UU. y Taiwán"

TransAsia plane crash: Pilot complained of ‘engine abnormality’ before take-off

By The Telegraph

The captain of doomed TransAsia Flight GE235 complained of “engine abnormalities” and requested an urgent inspection of the plane shortly before its final take-off but was rebuffed, it has been claimed.

Liao Jiangzhong, the plane’s former air force pilot, is among 32 people so far confirmed to have died when the aircraft crashed into a river shortly after taking off from Taipei’s Songshan airport on Wednesday morning.

An unnamed “whistleblower” told Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper that Mr Liao requested a thorough inspection of the plane after noticing “engine abnormalities” during its previous flight. The pilot registered the problem on a flight log, the newspaper added.

However, the source claimed that TransAsia staff had only inspected the plane’s communications equipment rather than performing a full inspection, for fear of incurring penalties for relying the flight from Taipei to the island of Kinmen.

Wu Huh-sheng, a company manager, rejected the allegation, telling the newspaper TransAsia had received no reports of “faulty engines”.

The ATR-72-600 prop-jet aircraft crashed shortly after take off from Taipei's downtown Sungshan Airport en route to the outlying Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands. There were 53 passengers on the plane, including two children and 31 mainland Chinese individuals, and five crew.

So far no cause has been given for the crash, which was captured in dramatic footage from a dashboard camera. Civil aviation officials said the flight took off at 10.53am and lost contact with controllers two minutes later.However,  in their final message to air traffic controllers the pilots suggested the plane had suffered catastrophic engine failure.

“Mayday! Mayday! Engine Flame-out!” one pilot says.

The claims emerged as the death toll from the disaster rose to 32. Eleven people are still missing while 15 survived, including a one-year-old boy who was pulled from the water by his father and saved using CPR.

Taiwanese aviation officials say the plane, an ATR 72-600 turboprop, had been in service since April last year and had undergone a “routine safety check” last month.

Al menos 13 muertos en un accidente aéreo en Taiwán

Por Sergio Ruiz

Al menos 13 personas han muerto al caer un avión de TransAsia Airways en un río de la isla de Taiwán, según ha informado la agencia taiwanesa CNA.

En el aparato, que tenía menos de un año de antiguedad, viajaban 53 pasajeros y cinco miembros de la tripulación, de los cuales 27 han sido rescatados. Quedaría por aclarar el paradero de las otras 18 personas, que podrían haber quedado atrapadas en la nave.

El avión, un ATR-72, se precipitó al río Jilong tras realizar un giro brusco y golpear un viaducto por causas desconocidas, informaron medios locales y un portavoz gubernamental.

Los equipos de emergencia han trasladado a los heridos a cuatro hospitales cercanos, mientras continúan las tareas de rescate.

Los equipos desplazados hasta el lugar tratan de sacar a la gente de la aeronave a través de un agujero realizado en el fuselaje del avión , a través del cual van tambiénn inyectando aire para tratar que el aparato siga, parcialmente, a flote. Más de la mitad del avión se encuentra hundido, según las imágenes difundidas por televisiones locales. Al parecer, la parte delantera, donde se encuentra la cabina de los pilotos, está incrustada en el fondo del río.