China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a road and residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, killing all 196 aboard and seven more on the ground

The Airbus A300B4-622R jet, registered B-1814, was en route from Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali, Indonesia to Taipei, Taiwan. The weather was inclement with rain and fog when the aircraft approached Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, so the pilot executed a missed approach. After the jet was cleared to land at runway 05L, the autopilot was disengaged, and the pilots then attempted a manual go-around. The jet slowed down, pitched up by 40 degrees, rose 1,000 feet (300 m), stalled, and crashed into a residential neighborhood, bursting into flames at local time 4:20 PM. All 196 people on board were killed (including the president of Taiwan's central bank, Sheu Yuan-dong, his wife, Huang Mian-mei, and three central bank officials), along with seven people on the ground. Hsu Lu, the manager of the Voice of Taipei radio station, said that one boy was pulled alive from the wreckage and later died.

The cockpit voice recording was leaked on the Internet, but has been removed as it is a property of the Taiwanese government.

With 203 fatalities, this was the deadliest air disaster of 1998 until Swissair Flight 111 crashed off the eastern coast of Canada less than seven months later. It remains the deadliest aviation accident on Taiwanese soil and the fifth-deadliest involving an Airbus A300. China Airlines had twelve A300s in its fleet at the time of the accident. It is also the second deadliest accident overall in Taiwan's history behind China Airlines Flight 611, which crashed in the Taiwan Strait.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved in the accident was an Airbus A300B4-622R registered as B-1814. It was delivered to China Airlines on 14 December 1990 and was powered by 2x Pratt and Witney PW415 engines. The aircraft was 7.3 years old at the time of the accident and had completed 20193 flight hours. Captain Lin Kang Long who was 49 years old, joined China Airlines in 1990, and had 7,210 hours total flight time. First Officer Jiang Der-Sheng who was 44 years old, joined China Airlines in 1996, and had 3,530 hours total flight time. Both pilots were formerly with the Republic of China Air Force.

Crash

The plane took off from Ngurah Rai Int'l Airport, Bali, Indonesia en route to Chiang Kai-Shek Int'l Airport, Taipei, Taiwan with 182 passengers and 14 crew. The Airbus carried out a ILS/DME approach to runway 05L at Taipei Chiang Kai Shek Airport in light rain and fog but came in 1000 feet too high above the glide slope (at 1515 feet, 1.2 nm short of the threshold). Go around power was applied 19 seconds later over the threshold (at a 1475 feet agl). The landing gear was raised and the flaps set to 20deg as the Airbus climbed through 1723 feet in a 35-deg pitch-up. Reaching 2751 feet (42.7 deg pitch-up, 45 knots speed) the A300 stalled. Control could not be regained as the aircraft fell and smashed into the ground 200 feet left off the runway. It then surged forward hit a utility pole and a highway median and skidded into several houses, surrounded by fish farms, rice paddies, factories and warehouses, and exploded killing all on board. Weather was 2400 feet visibility, RVR runway 05L of 3900 feet, 300 feet broken ceiling, 3000 feet overcast. According to the CVR(Cockpit Voice Recorder), the last words were from the captain and were 'OH! My God!'. This was surrounded by the Terrain alarm and stall warnings.

Flight Number

After the accident the flight number 676 was changed to 772 and was still operated by the Airbus A300 until they were replaced with Airbus A330.