Taiwan official says crashed plane ‘lost engine power’

World Today

Taiwan investigators said the black box from the ill-fated TransAsia Airlines plane has revealed that power was cut to both engines prior to the crash. CCTV’s Tony Cheng reported the story from Taipei.

Distraught relatives arrived at funeral services in Taipei for the victims of the TransAsia air disaster. The body of  the pilot was discovered yesterday, his hands still holding the joystick as he attempted to control the plane

“The pilot meticulously grasped the flight operating system and in the final moments he still wanted to control the plane to avoid harming residents in the housing communities,” Taiwan official Wu Den-Yih said. “To the plane’s crew, the victims and all the masters of religious ceremony, I hereby express my condolences.”

The preliminary investigation from the black boxes appeared to show that the pilots faced enormous odds. Both engines had failed before the crash, and the first warnings sounded less than a minute after takeoff.

“At 54 minutes, 09 seconds past 10 am local time, the pilot tried to restart the first engine after it had been shut down. He hoped to restart it,” Wang Hsing-Chung, Head of Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council said. “At this moment, there were several audible warnings in the cockpit, followed by some indistinct sounds, and then the power was cut off.”

Scuba divers linked arm-in-arm scoured every inch of the river beds at the crash site. Even so, the search for the remains of those unaccounted for is still ongoing.  Eight people are still missing.