Taiwan aviation officials have released information from the flight data and cockpit voice recorders of a TransAsia Airways plane that crashed in Taipei on Wednesday.
TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 crashed into a river in Taipei shortly after taking off from Songshan Airport on Wednesday morning. As of midday Friday, 35 bodies have been recovered, while eight people are still missing. A total of 15 people survived the crash.
According to the Aviation Safety Council at a news briefing on Friday, the aircraft’s stall warning sounded five times before the plane crashed. The managing director of the council, Wang Hsing-chung, said the pilot turned off one of the engines and restarted it. He also said the pilot had sent a “mayday engine flameout” message.
A flameout refers to the run-down of a jet engine when there is a faulty combustion. Wang said the flight data showed that both the plane’s engines failed, leading to the crash.