TransAsia Airways is the 3rd largest air carrier in Taiwan. It began operations on May 21, 1951, as the first private airline in Taiwan. At first, it operated flights on the route Taipei - Hualien - Taitung - Kaohsiung. In addition to flights, TransAsia Airways also offered airport handling services to foreign airlines. Air services operated until 1958, when the company's management decided to focus on ground services, especially catering.
Domestic flights were resumed in 1988, after 30 years break. First ATR 72 entered the fleet in 1991. From 1992, TransAsia Airways has launched charter flights to international destinations such as: Laoag, Manila, Cebu, Phnom Penh, Surabaya, Yangon, Phuket, Danang and Manado. International scheduled flights were inaugurated in 1995, in Macau and Surabaya.
TransAsia Airways has grown, developed and reached a fleet of 22 aircraft and flying to 33 from domestic and international destinations. In 2014, it also established the low-cost subsidiary V Air, which started operations on 14 in December.
But the evolution of TransAsia Airways was also flooded with accidents:
* On 30 January 1995, an aircraft ATR 72-200 collapsed at 80 km south of Taipei, during the flight from Penghu to Taipei. 4 people lost their lives.
* On 21 December, 2002, a cargo type aircraft ATR 72-200 collapsed due to ice while operating a flight between Taipei and Macau. The two crew members lost their lives. The investigation identified that the flight crew was not aware and did not take the necessary measures for the ice conditions accumulated on the aircraft components.
* On 23 March 2003, a Airbus A321 (B-22603) TransAsia Airways hit a truck on the runway at Tainan Airport. They were not victims, only the two owners of the truck suffered injuries. The aircraft was badly damaged.
* On 23 July 2014, an aircraft ATR 72-500 (B-22810) crashed near Magong Airport, Penghu Island. The plane operated flight GE-222 on the route Kaohsiung - Magong and had 54 passengers and 4 crew members on board. 48 people lost their lives and 10 people suffered serious injuries. Some reports suggest that there were also 5 casualties on the ground, with the plane crashing into a residential area.
* During the day of 4 February 2015, an aircraft ATR 72-600 TransAsia Airways crashed immediately after taking off, in the Keelung River, near Taipei. The aircraft took off from the 10 runway at Taipei-Sung Shan Airport, at 10: 51, with 58 persons on board (53 passengers and 5 crew members). Currently, 31 has been reported by deceased persons, 15 injured and hospitalized and 12 still missing.
The ATR 72-600 (B-22816) was powered by 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127M engines and was only 10 months old in the Transasia Airways fleet. It was delivered on April 15, 2014.
It is difficult to say what was the basis of the recent accident and I do not think it is good to suppose. An aviation accident is based on several mechanical and human causes. We will wait for the investigators to do their job and we will inform you when the first hypotheses will appear.
As a result of the recent plane crashes, more and more people are starting to avoid airplanes. In my opinion, this should not happen. There are no more aviation accidents compared to previous years, indeed their number decreases from year to year, but now we have much more information channels. If in the past years, the information became more difficult for us because there was no internet, and smartphones were only in the project phase, now everything is more accessible and we can distribute information in real time. And I also mention that the number of flights increases at an alarming rate from year to year, on average by 5%. Just imagine European airspace is crossed daily by 30 000 flights, in 24 hours.
We wish you clear skies and flights without incident!