Taiwan pilot hailed as a hero for pulling ill-fated plane clear of buildings

Taipei’s mayor has hailed the pilot of the crashed TransAsia Airways plane as a hero on Thursday for narrowly avoiding buildings and ditching the stalled aircraft in a river, likely averting a worse disaster.

At least 31 people were killed when Flight GE235 lurched between buildings, clipped a taxi and an overpass with one of its wings and crashed upside down into shallow water shortly after take-off from a downtown Taipei airport on Wednesday. There were 15 known survivors and 12 more unaccounted for.

“He really tried everything he could,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said of the pilot, his voice breaking with sobs.

Amateur video recorded by a car dashboard camera showed the plane nose-up as it barely cleared the buildings close to Taipei’s Songshan airport before crashing into the river.

“The pilot’s immediate reaction saved many people,” said Chris Lin, brother of one of the survivors. “I was a pilot myself and I’m quite knowledgeable about the immediate reaction needed in this kind of situation.”

Aerospace analysts said it was too early to say whether the pilots intentionally pulled the plane above the buildings, and noted that the crew may have been aiming for the river to reduce casualties.

A more conclusive picture will emerge only when authorities release details from the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders, which were recovered on Wednesday.

“He’s missed the buildings but it is premature to make an analysis of what happened on this flight. We have to wait for the data from the cockpit voice recorder and flight recorder,” said aviation analyst Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of airlineratings.com.

The pilot and co-pilot of the almost-new turboprop ATR 72-600 were among those killed, Taiwan’s aviation regulator said. TransAsia identified the pilot as 42-year-old Liao Chien-tsung.

Taiwanese media reported that it appeared Liao had fought desperately to steer his stricken aircraft between apartment blocks and commercial buildings.

The head of Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration, Lin Tyh-ming, has said Liao had 4,914 flying hours under his belt and the co-pilot had 6,922 hours.

Taiwanese media reported that Liao, the son of street vendors, passed exams to join the air force. He later flew for China Airlines, Taiwan’s main carrier, before joining TransAsia.