UTX United Technologies Corporation

   By Chun Han Wong 
 

Taiwanese investigators on Thursday blamed the deadly crash of a TransAsia Airways Corp. (6702.TW) flight in Taipei last year on the pilots' improper responses to an engine fault, and recommended a review of the airline's training and safety procedures.

In its final report on the February 2015 accident that killed 43 people, Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council also said the aircraft and engine manufacturers should work to prevent recurrences of the engine malfunction that preceded the crash of TransAsia Flight 235.

Thursday's report reinforced findings released last July that showed a pilot had mistakenly shut down the remaining functional engine on the ATR 72 turboprop plane before it crashed into a river just minutes after takeoff.

The sequence of events that led to the crash started with a loss of power in one of the plane's two engines, the report said. "The flight crew did not perform the documented abnormal and emergency procedures to identify the failure and implement the required corrective actions," it said.

The pilots then mistakenly shut down the other engine as they tried to deal with the initial problem, contributing to the aircraft's loss of speed and altitude, according to the report. They failed to realize their error until it was too late to recover the plane, it said.

Flight 235 had departed Taipei with 58 people on board for a roughly hourlong flight to Kinmen, a Taiwanese island near mainland China. Many of the passengers were mainland Chinese tourists. The accident came less than a year after another TransAsia ATR 72 crashed on the Taiwanese island of Penghu during a landing attempt in July 2014, killing 48 people.

Thursday's report listed a number of safety recommendations directed at TransAsia, aircraft builder ATR, as well as engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney and its parent firm, United Technologies Corp. (UTX), among others.

Investigators asked TransAsia to "conduct a thorough review" of its flight-crew training programs to ensure that flight crews were competent and comply with standard procedures. The airline should also improve internal monitoring mechanisms on safety, training and pilot performance, they said.

The report also said ATR, Pratt & Whitney and United Technologies should assess risks associated with the engine type used on Flight 235.

TransAsia said in a statement it respects the report's findings, and has taken steps since last year to improve safety and crew training. ATR, Pratt & Whitney and United Technologies didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 30, 2016 06:34 ET (10:34 GMT)

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