China Airlines (CAL) yesterday cited the pilot and the seven other crew members of the Boeing 737-800 passenger for their emergency evacuation of all 157 passengers in the critical moments before the jet exploded in flames at Okinawa's Naha airport Monday.
Pilot You Chien-kuo and his team returned to the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport early last night after answering questions raised by investigators of Japan and Taiwan, aviation safety officials who were helping with the probe into the possible causes of the fire and explosions on the plane.
You refrained from making statements about the incident because it is still under investigation by experts and authorities.
"Based on the information we have gathered, they evacuated all the passengers in accordance with the standard operation procedure, which requires that all passengers be evacuated within 90 seconds in the case of emergency," said Charles Lin, a spokesman for the government's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA).
Panicked passengers slid down emergency chutes and raced to safety as the fire engulfed the Boeing 737-800 before a series of explosions.
China Airlines spokesman Johnson Sun described the crew as "heroes."
"Let's welcome the return of our 'heroes,' who swiftly evacuated all the passengers to safety," Sun said.
He made a brief introduction to the seven Taiwanese crew members attending a press conference
In addition to You, 48, they included his copilot Tseng Ta-wei, cabin chief Kang Li-mei, and flight attendants Cheng Hsieh-jer, Fan Jin-yao, Chang Chia-wen, and Hung Kuan-lin.
The last crew member -- a Japanese woman flight attendant -- was taking a break after the ordeal.
"The captain was the last one to get out of the plane. He has done what he was supposed to do (in handling the emergency). He is brave," he told reporters.
You thanked his crew, saying "they immediately evacuated all the passengers upon receiving my order."
"Without them, I would not have the opportunity to stand here to meet you tonight," he said.
You said all he thought about when dealing with the crisis was to make sure that all passengers and crew members were safe.
Only after he saw cabin chief Kang make a safe landing on the ground through an evacuation sliding chute did he order Tseng to quickly get out of the plane.
Television pictures showed Captain You telling the copilot to climb out of the two-story cockpit via rope before doing so himself. Seconds later, the blaze set off a chain of explosions.
"Our pilots were the last to depart," said spokesman Sun earlier. "They told the flight attendants to execute an evacuation and help passengers escape within the shortest possible time."
"They did what they should have and acted with great bravery," he said.
Pilot You flew for the Air Force for 20 years before taking up commercial flight for CAL six years ago.
Copilot Tseng, 26, joined CAL more than a year ago and has thus far logged 845 flight hours.
Earlier, CAA Director-General Chang Kuo-cheng described the incident and evacuation as "unthinkable."
The entire evacuation took only a couple of minutes after ground crew told the pilot they spotted flames on the jet's wings, Sun said.
No one was injured in Monday's accident.
The fire started in one of the engines just as the plane pulled into place at the airport parking ramp. With the plane's wings and midsection ablaze, passengers escaped to the tarmac on inflated emergency chutes.
Once the aircraft was empty, the jet erupted into a fireball that sent flames and an enormous cloud of black smoke billowing into the sky.
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