Domestic air travel in Taiwan has taken a hit following last week’s crash of a TransAsia Airways plane that was bound for the outlying islands of Kinmen.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) on Saturday began an evaluation of the competence of 71 TransAsia pilots operating the ATR aircraft similar to the one the crashed. That’s after an evaluation of black box data suggested that pilot error may have contributed to the fatal crash.
The CAA is working with a third party to evaluate the pilots, in a process that will take four days.
The evaluations have led to the cancellation of 36 flights on Sunday, the majority between Taipei and the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu, as well as the east coast city of Hualien.
The airline has cancelled another 30 flights on Monday.