A helicopter owned by Emerald Pacific Airlines (凌天航空) yesterday crashed while cleaning insulators on a Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) high-voltage electricity tower in New Taipei City’s Taishan District (泰山), killing two people on board.
The victims were identified as pilot Chen Hsiu-ming (陳秀明) and insulator cleaning technician Yu Hui-hsien (余惠賢). The Civil Aeronautics Administration said that Chen had accumulated 4,787 flight hours and held a valid certificate to operate helicopters.
Chen and Yu were sent to Taipei Hospital in the Sinjhuang District (新莊) and Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taoyuan respectively and were pronounced dead on arrival.
Photo: Huang Hsin-po, Taipei Times
The administration said that the Bell 206B helicopter was one of two aircraft assigned to clean high-voltage electricity tower insulators.
The helicopter departed from New Taipei City’s Yingge District (鶯歌) at 7am and crashed at about 11am.
The administration said that it was informed of the accident at 11:23am by the National Rescue Command Center, adding that it then established an emergency response team and dispatched representatives to the site, along with aviation accident investigators from the Aviation Safety Council.
The airline has five helicopters of the same model, including the one destroyed in the accident. Emerald Pacific has temporarily suspended high-voltage power line insulator cleaning operations because of the accident.
Taipower yesterday said in a statement that the accident might have been caused by the helicopter coming into contact with high-voltage power lines.
The power company said that it was sorry for what had occurred, adding that it had sent representatives to meet with the families of the victims after the accident and promised to assist them in handling funeral arrangements and other relevant matters.
Taipower said it would cooperate with the council to quickly determine the cause of the accident and prevent similar accidents from occurring.
Insulators on power substations have to be cleaned regularly, because dust and salt buildup affects the transmission of electricity, Taipower said, adding that while most insulator cleaning work is done by hand, it requires Emerald Pacific’s services to clean the upper part of towers.
The helicopter was manufactured on March 31, 2001, and had been in operation for nearly 14 years and eight months.
Apart from weekly inspections, all helicopters nationwide are required to undergo annual airworthiness inspections.
The crashed helicopter was scheduled to undergo the annual inspection next month, the administration said.
Taipower said that it recruited Emerald Pacific in 1998 to clean insulators on top of its power stations, with the accident being the first fatal on-the-job incident in 17 years.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
RSS