CAL plane plunges suddenly

The incident happened only 30 minutes after take off at the Taoyuan International Airport a week ago, local TV stations reported yesterday.

The cable TV media reported that CAL's CI112 flight, which departed on the afternoon of July 22, saw its cabin pressure quickly soar to the level used at 14,000 feet, from a normal level of 6,000 feet.

Pilots sent an emergency report to the control tower, and then manually adjusted the cabin pressure, while trying to fly back to land at the Taoyuan airport. But the plane soon plunged from an altitude of 36,000 feet to 10,000 feet, terrifying the 89 passengers on board.

The plane then landed safely at the airport.

Although there were 89 passengers aboard, only 40 oxygen masks were automatically released. A CAL spokesman explained the phenomenon by saying that the cabin pressure declined along with the plunge of the airplane, and therefore some masks didn't fall down.

The spokesman said that after fixing the cabin pressure control system, the plane is now back in normal service.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aeronautics Administration is to investigate to determine what caused the incident.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email