China Airlines plane bursts into flame at Okinawa airport

[Bluebear]

Source: NHK news - Japan

A China Airlines 737 jet is on fire at Naha airport in Okinawa. The local branch of China Airlines in Naha says the plane, flight number 120, carrying 155 passengers, left Taipei this morning. It was scheduled to arrive at Naha at 10:45 AM. An air traffic controller at Naha airport says all 155 passengers have been safely evacuated. The local fire department in Naha is trying to determine whether any crew members are still in the plane. It says all the passengers have been safely evacuated. The National Police Agency says a fire broke out at the engine-room of the China Airlines plane after it made a landing at Naha airport and all the passengers had left the plane.

Read more: http://www.nhk.or.jp/english/

[Spinzonner]

1. Commercial Airliners have 'engine rooms' ?

Sounds like a bit of a translation issue there .

[Maq]

3. Left Engine caught fire three minutes after landing

according to the scrolling news. six crew members may still be on board. All passengers were evacuated.

[truthisfreedom]

4. Perhaps they meant inside the wing?

Puzzling.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. The original Japanese language article just mentions "engine"

The translator just made a mistake.

[PerceptionManagement]

11. The Station Chief FUed and left the timing of the bomb to subordinates

No guess who the target was?

[DRoseDARs]

18. Larger commercial aircraft have rooms below that allow access to various computer systems.

It's a bit cramped and there's a particular name for it, but "engine room" can be understood to be the same thing.

[AnnieBW]

2. Can't the Chinese do ANYTHING right these days?

Geeze!

[emilyg]

5. Seems not. LOL

[regnaD kciN]

6. I hate to tell you, but Boeing isn't Chinese...

The cause of this incident remains to be seen, but there's just as much chance that the fault is American as Chinese.

[Aviation Pro]

8. There are two manufacturers of engines for the 73....

Rolls-Royce and GE. I don't know what engine was selected for this particular aircraft, but Boeing does not build them.

[Angleae]

10. 737 Engines

Actually all 737 engines are all made by CFM International (Owned by GE & Seneca) except the 737-100 (no longer in use) & 737-200 (retiring rapidly) which are exclusively Pratt & Whitney

[mallard]

19. That sounds more like it

China Airlines has all American engines on their Boeings.

[Aviation Pro]

22. That's right....

...I forgot about the really, really, really old ones. That's the problem with having the 73NG on one's mind all the time.

[Parche]

25. Snecma

Not Seneca

It was a 737-800 series, brand new, with winglets.........

[HughBeaumont]

26. " . . . just as much chance that the fault is American as Chinese."

Arguably, the same thing can be said about the state of our economy, particularly wealth inequity.

[enlightenment]

7. Yeah - maybe they should stop buying Boeing aircraft . . . n/t

[SayWhatYo]

12. If Boeing aircraft commonly exploded on the runway then you would have a point...

I mean, if a American Airlines had an airbus engine explode on the run way, it would be just as ignorant to say that they should stop using airbus' products.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. China Airlines is the Taiwanese airline

The one from the PRC is Air China.

However, the Taiwanese China Airlines has had a terrible safety record over the years.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. In 1994, they had a terrible accident at Nagoya, Japan

As the plane was coming in for a landing, the 28-year-old pilot pulled the nose up too much and the plane started to climb at a steep angle until it stalled, then fell to the ground.

[mallard]

20. Accident in Nagoya was repeated on a returm flight from Bali in Feb '98

There were both times pilot errors involving a dispute in the cockpit following decision to abort landings for a go-around.

Both times the automated abort landing routine was initiated by the pilot and then the co-pilot went and shut off the auto pilot anyhow.

I was once told Arnold Schwarzenegger might be able to keep the nose down in that scenario when the Airbus' controls go back to manual, and that a French Airbus safety test pilot had been required to try this once and barely managed to regain control - as only an ace pilot could!

Twice was more than a bit of an insult to those who perished. Taipei has meantime tried hard to shake a bad reputation, but with more bad luck - this one don't any help.

[Art_from_Ark]

21. At Nagoya, the 28-year-old was the co-pilot

not the pilot, as I had originally written. You are right, there was some sort of disagreement between the two about how to land, the co-pilot tried his way, and it ended up being the wrong way.

They were lucky this time that it was only a short hop (a little more than a hour) from Taipei to Naha

[WhiteTara]

13. here's a great pic

[Art_from_Ark]

15. Here's a pic of them putting out the fire

[Art_from_Ark]

17. And here's a pic of the burned out hulk

[tanyev]

23. The passengers had NOT left the plane.

I just saw the footage on GMA. They did all make it off, thank goodness, using the emergency chutes. That would have been scary.

[Locrian]

24. video up on yahoo - scary

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070820/ap_on_re_as/japan_plane_fire

[ronnykmarshall]

27. That is scary.

The pilots made it out just as the plane exploded.