Jet’s only live engine turned off by mistake

The pilot flying a TransAsia Airways jet mistakenly switched off the plane’s only working engine seconds before it crashed on February 4, killing 43 people, Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council (ASC) said.

The report also showed that Captain Liao Jian-zong had failed simulator training in May 2014, in part because he had insufficient knowledge of how to deal with an engine flame-out on take-off.

“Wow, pulled back the wrong side throttle,” Liao, 41, was heard to say on voice recordings seconds before the crash.

There appeared to be confusion as the two captains tried to regain control of the plane after one engine lost power about three minutes into the doomed flight. Liao reduced the throttle on the working engine, but did not realise his mistake until it was too late. He tried to restart the engines several times, before a junior first officer in the cockpit said: “Impact, impact, brace for impact.”

Those were the chilling last words heard on the data recordings.

Seconds later, the almost new ATR 72-600, which had 58 people on board, crashed upside down into a shallow river in Taipei after it lurched between buildings, clipping an overpass and a taxi. Fifteen people survived but all three pilots and 40 passengers and other crew died in the second crash involving a TransAsia ATR plane in a year.

Liao, a former airforce pilot, began flying commercial aircraft in 2009 and joined TransAsia the following year. He was promoted to captain in August 2014 and joined the ATR 72-600 fleet in November. He had a total of 4,914 flight hours on ATR 72 planes.

However, the report showed that Liao failed the simulator check in May 2014 when he was being evaluated for promotion. Assessors found he had a tendency not to complete procedures and checks, and his “cockpit management and flight planning” were found wanting.

However, he passed after a second simulator check on June 29 and 30 and was promoted to captain, though similar problems were detected during training from July 2-10 last year.

Issues cropped up again during training for the ATR 72-600 in November, when an instructor said Liao “may need extra training” when dealing with an engine failure after take-off.

After the crash, Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration put TransAsia’s ATR pilots through oral proficiency tests on how to handle an aircraft during engine failure. All but one passed the tests, but some needed more than one attempt. The lone failure was demoted to vice captain from captain.