Crashes seal fate of Taiwan’s TransAsia

Taiwan- based TransAsia Airways said Tuesday it would be dissolved in the wake of two deadly plane crashes, massive financial losses and an insider trading probe.

Board members reached the decision to close the carrier during a hastily called board meeting, with all flights immediately axed.

Chief Executive Officer Liu Tung- ming bowed in a sign of contrition as he told reporters of the “painful” decision. “The board meeting convened today has approved the decision to dissolve the company and suspend all flights from today,” he said.

The crash of flight GE235 in February 2015 grabbed global headlines as car dashcam footage showed the jet clipping a road bridge and plunging into a river shortly after take- off from Taipei, killing 43 people.

An investigation blamed pilot errors, with one found to have mistakenly switched off the only functioning engine after the other had failed.

That accident came just seven months after another jet slammed into trees and houses near Magong city on Taiwan’s Penghu island, leaving 48 dead.

The pilots were flying below the minimum altitude required in poor visibility caused by a typhoon in a procedural mistake widespread among TransAsia’s pilots at the time, the Aviation Safety Council said in its investigation report.

TransAsia, which was Taiwan’s first private airline, said it had introduced six training programs following the incidents.

But despite moves to combat safety fears, it lost NT$ 1.1 billion ($ 34.38 million) last year. The loss widened to NT$ 2.2 billion in the first three quarters of this year, and in October its budget airline V Air folded.

Its woes were exacerbated by a slump in tourists from the Chinese mainland.

TransAsia is also involved in a sharetrading probe. Chairman Vincent Lin and two executives were questioned by prosecutors early Tuesday after the Taiwan Stock Exchange warned of “apparent” insider trading in Monday’s session.

At the time of its closure, TransAsia had a fleet of 16 passenger aircraft serving 27 international and domestic locations, and a staff of 1,795.