The crew of the TransAsia Airways turboprop that crashed in Taiwan in 2015 failed to follow procedures for an engine malfunction and then stalled the aircraft, investigators found. The Taiwan Aviation Safety Council’s report, released Thursday, also confirmed previous reports that the captain of the ATR 72-600 shut down the working engine when the other failed just after departing the Taipei airport. Forty-three of the 58 people on board were killed when the ATR struck a bridge and crashed into the river below in February 2015.
The council’s report said an inconsistent electrical signal in the No. 2 engine’s autofeather unit likely caused an uncommanded feathering, which started the accident sequence. The captain then reduced power to the other engine. The aircraft’s stick shaker and pusher activated before the crash. If the crew had responded correctly to the engine failure and stabilized the aircraft, “the occurrence could have been prevented,” the report said.Investigators also reported they found inconsistencies and gaps in training procedures at the airline, including those for the captain. He had failed a simulator check and passed a second before his promotion to captain, but was found to need more emergency training, with “engine flame out at take off and single engine operations” specified in the report.
