Hole in fuel tank suspected in China Airlines blaze
An AFP reports says that investigators in Japan say they have found a hole in the fuel tank of a China Airlines plane that could explain why it burst into a fireball moments after landing.
All 165 passengers and crew fled to safety, sliding down emergency chutes with minutes to spare as the Boeing 737-800 burst into fire and then exploded after landing Monday (local time) on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
As investigators from Japan, Taiwan and the United States sifted through the jet’s charred remains, the Japanese side said it discovered the fuel tank had been pierced.
“We spotted a hole in a fuel tank,” the Transport Ministry’s investigative division said in a brief statement.
“We suspect that oil leaked from this hole and spilled from the right wing to the outside.”
Chief investigator Kazushige Daiki pointed to a bolt that was part of the plane’s structure.
“It is believed that the hole was made as the tank was pierced by the bolt,” Mr Daiki told a news conference in Okinawa.
Japanese media reports say the bolt came off from a movable flap on the front of the right wing called a slat, but the investigators could not find why the bolt came off.
Investigators have already recovered the plane’s black box to analyse the pilots’ conversations.
China Airlines, Taiwan’s leading carrier, has offered its apologies – its chief executive flew immediately to Okinawa to console frightened tourists – and announced compensation for passengers.
The company, which has reported nine fatal accidents since 1970, has also painted over its logo on the wrecked aircraft in an apparent bid to minimise bad publicity.
Its chairman, Philip Wei, also offered his resignation to the board. Mr Wei “tendered his verbal resignation shortly after the incident in a bid to shoulder his responsibility,” a China Airlines official told AFP in Taipei.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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