Chinese Jumbo Crashes into Sea

May 25, 2002 8:01 AM

Chinese Jumbo Crashes into Sea off of the coast of Taiwan. All 225 onboard are feared dead. :(
posted by metaxa (11 comments total)

just caught this in channel 4 news. I do wish thou that the journalist would show some restraint around the affected families.

Last thing I'd want is some nosey journalists pointing their camera in face and such a personal time
posted by monkeyJuice at 10:18 AM on May 25, 2002

According to the title of the article, it's Taiwanese, not Chinese.
posted by gyc at 11:17 AM on May 25, 2002

Hmmm... Taiwanese passenger jet, en route to China...

I just read on CNN that some witnesses heard some sort of explosion, and that there was no mayday or distress call of any kind. These are both consistant with a mid-air explosion of some description.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I smell a rat. If anyone happens to be hip to China-Taiwan politics, maybe this passenger list is worth a gander. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find either a PLA irregular or some Taiwanese "rebels" among those names. (Either that or some seriously suspicious military flights in the area...)

Of course, jumping to any further conclusions would require a rocket-assist, but I really feel that there was some dirty work afoot.
posted by fnord_prefect at 1:03 PM on May 25, 2002

Thank you for bringing home the gravity of the situation with that emoticon.
posted by droob at 2:57 PM on May 25, 2002

Yep, it seems the Taiwanese cheekily call their carrier "China Airlines". Interestingly, this comes amid new calls for more direct flights to the mainland, rather than only via the special-status territory of Hong Kong.
posted by dhartung at 5:36 PM on May 25, 2002

droob: I'm taking that line. It's the most clever thing I've seen all day.
posted by fnord_prefect at 6:23 PM on May 25, 2002

To China? It was going from Hong Kong to Taipei, a perfectly common route.

China Airlines makes sense, if you take the time to consider that Taiwan's official name is the Republic of China.
posted by Poagao at 7:17 PM on May 25, 2002

actually it was the other way around. it was heading to hong kong from taipei.

but poagao is correct about taiwan being called the republic of china. he ought to know... he served in their army.
posted by bwg at 9:53 PM on May 25, 2002

Oops, that's right. Still, it's a very common route, so there's nothing suspicious about the flightpath.
posted by Poagao at 10:25 PM on May 25, 2002

The Taiwanese media is now reporting a potential link to Muslim separatists in the Phillipines. They say a Filipina woman booked on the flight did not board it, although her luggage remained on, and her details subsequently proved fake.
posted by kerplunk at 4:57 AM on May 26, 2002

> Thank you for bringing home the gravity of the situation
> with that emoticon.

Marvelous.
posted by pracowity at 8:42 AM on May 26, 2002