China Airlines Flight 642

*For the full accident report please go to https://www.thb.gov.hk/aaia/doc/main1.pdf*

22°17'55" N 113°54'27" E

## China Airlines Flight 642

A Mandarin Airlines MD-11 similar to the one involved in the accident with the accident aircraft behind

## Incident

### Summary

Crashed on landing due to strong winds and pilot error

### Site

Hong Kong International Airport 22°17'55" N 113°54'27" E

## Aircraft

### Operator

Mandarin Airlines on behalf of China Airlines

### Survivors

312

**China Airlines Flight 642** was a scheduled flight from Don Mueang Int'l Airport to Chiang Kai Shek Int'l Airport (now TaoYuan Int'l Airport) with a stopover at Hong Kong.

The aircraft, B-150 was an MD-11 manufactured in Long Beach and gave the serial number 48468 flipped over and went up in flames while on approach to Hong Kong. Out of the 315 occupants on board, 3 died. This was the first fatal accident at the newly built Hong Kong International Airport.

China Airlines Flight 642 was the only other crash of 2 MD-11s with passengers on board, the other being Swissair Flight 111 which crashed on 2nd September 1998 due to an on board fire. All other crashes involving MD-11s were cargo flights.

## Aircraft

The aircraft was an MD-11 built in Long Beach and given the registration number B-150, serial number 48468 and line number 518. Its first flight was in 1992 and delivered to China Airlines the same year. Prior to the crash, it had clocked in 30721 hours of airframe hours and gone through 5824 flight cycles. It was powered by 3 Pratt & Whitney P4460 engines. The crashed aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

## Crew

In command was 57 year old Captain Gerardo Lettich, who was an Italian national. He had flown for a major European Airline before joining China Airlines in 1997. Prior to the crash, he had 17,900 flight hours, including 3,260 hours on the MD-11

The first officer was 36 year old Liu Cheng Hsi, he was a Taiwanese National who joined China Airlines in 1989 and had 4,630 flight hours, with 2,780 of them on the MD-11.

## Flight data

At 6:43 PM Beijing time, (1043 UTC) on 22 August 1999, the aircraft was on final approach on runway 25L when Typhoon Sam was 50 kilometres NE of the airport. At 700 feet prior to touchdown a further wind check was reported to the crew: 320 deg/28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) gusting to 36 knots. This resulted in a crosswind vector of 26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph) gusting to 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph), while the tested limit for the aircraft was 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph).

During the flare for touchdown, The plane rolled to the right, and its right landing gear struck the runway hard, following the number 3 engine and wingtip struck the runway edge. This caused the right wing to seperate and the plane flipped over, causing fuel to spill everywhere and catch fire and skid off the runway. The damaged aircraft came to rest in a grass patch next to the K3 runway entrance. Photos after the crash show fire damage to the rear of the plane, but was quickly extinguished due to heavy rain and quick response from the airport's firefighters.

Rescue vehicles quickly arrived on the scene and suppressed the fire on and in the vicinity of the aeroplane, allowing rescue of the passengers and crew to progress in very difficult conditions. After passengers evacuated from the aircraft, rescue teams pulled out 2 bodies out of the aircraft and quickly certified dead on arrival at hospital, sadly 5 days later another passenger died from his injuries. In all 219 people were admitted to hospital and 11 people were released due to the hospital unable to find any injuries to the passengers. All 15 crew members survived the crash.

## Investigation

The final report of the accident blamed it mainly on pilot error, specifically the inability to arrest the high rate of descent existing at 50 feet (15 m) altitude on the radar altimeter. The descent rate at touch down was 18–20 feet per second (5.5–6.1 m/s).

The flight data stored in the volatile memory of the aircraft's Quick Access Recorder (QAR) during the last 500 feet (150 m) of the approach could not be recovered due to the interruption of the power supply at impact. Probable wind variations and the loss of headwind component, together with the early retardation of thrust levers, led to a 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) loss in indicated airspeed just prior to touchdown.[5]

Due to the severe weather conditions forecast for Hong Kong, the flight crew had prepared to divert the flight to Taipei if the situation at Hong Kong was deemed unsuitable for landing. Extra fuel was carried for this possibility, resulting in a landing weight of 429,557 lb (194,844 kg), 99.897% of its maximum landing weight of 430,000 lb (200,000 kg). Based on the initial weather and wind check which was passed along to the crew from Hong Kong during the flight, they believed they could land there and decided against a diversion to Taipei. However four earlier flights had carried out missed approaches at Hong Kong and five had diverted.

During the final approach, the plane descended along the ILS glideslope until at about 700 feet (210 m), the crew visually acquired the runway. They disengaged the autopilot but left the autothrottle on. During the flare, the rate of descent was not arrested, the plane landed with the right wing slightly lower. The right landing gear touched down first, the right engine impacted the runway and the right wing was detached from the fuselage. Since the left wing was still attached, the lift from that wing rolled the fuselage onto its right side, and the plane came to rest inverted in the grass strip next to the runway. The spilled fuel caught fire.[5]

Several suggestions were given to China Airlines concerning its training.[5]

China Airlines disputed the report, citing the weather conditions at the time of the accident and how they may have played a role.[1

## Aftermath

China Airlines decided to still operate the flight, however without the Bangkok origin airport, Bangkok-Hong Kong flights were stopped on 31st October 2010, the flight is now only a HK-TY flight. It is also now operated by a Boeing 747-400 and an Airbus A330-300

## Media

The landing and crash of Flight 642 was recorded by nearby occupants in a car. The video which also captured reactions from the witnesses has been uploaded to websites such as YouTube and Airdisaster.com.[13]

A photo showing another Mandarin Airlines MD-11 taxiing past the remains of Flight 642 was circulated.[14]

This disaster was also aired on RTHK's *Elite Brigade II* Episode 2 in 2012.

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