Residents: Airliner Flew Close to Condo(747 misses 41 story Condo by 30 feet!)

Herald tribune ^ | 1-5-02 | AP

[Rome2000]

Residents: Airliner Flew Close to Condo

The Associated Press

Residents of a high-rise told federal authorities a China Airlines jumbo jet flew dangerously close to the side of their 41-story building.

Ana Marie Vaisanen said she could see passengers inside the Boeing 747 as it swept past her 12th-floor condominium at Century Center Saturday morning.

"This roar became louder and louder and louder ... and I look out and there is a 747," Vaisanen said.

Some residents told television station KITV the plane came within 30 feet of the building and that one of its wings passed over the fourth-floor recreation deck.

Building resident Sylvia Thomas was walking her dog when she looked up and saw the jet.

"It went behind the building and came out the other side," she said.

Tweet Coleman, the Federal Aviation Administration's Pacific representative, would only confirm witnesses reported a China Airlines 747 was involved.

"We're doing an investigation on it, so I really don't have any specifics at this time," Coleman said Saturday night.

A call placed to the airline's office at Honolulu International Airport seeking comment went unanswered.

At 350 feet, Century Center, a mixed retail-office-residential condominium building, is one of the tallest structures in Hawaii.

Last modified: January 05. 2003 1:47AM

[Go Gordon]

A near miss is as good as a mile.

By definition, would a "near miss" be a collision?

[Brian Allen]

<< 747 captains usually know where they are. >>

Departing or arriving, within 500-1000 feet of the ground, every Asian crewmember I have ever flown with [While logging almost 30,000 Command Hours] turned into a cardboard cutout in a pilot costume!

As their accident rate demonstrates [And if you don't count Africans] they are Absolutely the world's most bloody awful "pilots." And China Airlines record is Asia's worst!

[Did you ever see an Asian "driving" a car???]

[4Freedom]

Chinese pilot, Ah Tink Yu Fani, and his copilot, Ai No Pei Fu Na Ding!

[Brian Allen]

<< China Airlines is a Taiwanese [Govt!] airline, and has a history of stupid accidents related to pilot screwups and faulty maintenance. You couldn't pay me to fly this outfit.

Korean Airlines is another one. >>

Spot on. Barbeques enroute to the accident site. Both are HUGE no-nos.

Just like [Just for starters] Singapore, United, Delta and American!

[jriemer]

Rome2k,

China Airlines has a long history of really bad pilots that are frequently on the hairy edge of crashing their planes. Before someone threatens me with libel, wander over to Airlines.net and look at their "Most Popular" pictures and you will see a significant percentage of CA aircraft involved in accidents and / or dangerous flight operations. This site has a very large collection of photos of CA aircraft making hard landings into Hong Kong's old airport among others that would make one question their pilot's judgement.

I hope these links works. Site: www.airliners.net

Example photo- http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=047556&WxsIERv=Qm9laW5nIDc0Ny00Li4u&WdsYXMg=Q2hpbmEgQWlybGluZXM%3D&QtODMg=SG9uZyBLb25nIC0gS2FpIFRhayBJbnRlcm5hdGlvbmFsIChIS0cgLyBWSEhIKSAoQ2xvc2VkKQ%3D%3D&ERDLTkt=Q2hpbmEgLSBIb25nIEtvbmc%3D&ktODMp=SnVuZSAxOTk3&WNEb25u=U2FtdWVsIGxv&xsIERvdWdsY=&MgTUQtODMgKE=Q3JhenkgbGFuZGluZyBhcyB5b3UgY2FuIHNlZSBzcG9pbGVycyBhbmQgdGhlIHRpcmUgdHJhY2sgY2xlYXJseS4gRnVsbCBmcmFtZSBhbmQgdGFrZW4gZnJvbSBCZWFjb24gSGlsbCB3aXRoIDgwMCBtbSBsZW5zLg%3D%3D&YXMgTUQtODMgKERD=Mjc4MjA3&NEb25uZWxs=MTk5OS0wOS0xOQ%3D%3D&static=yes&size=L

jriemer

[Brian Allen]

Mandarin is a China subsidiary. Same abjectly-corrupt ex-air-force-can't-fly culture of the blind leading the blind permeates both companies.

[verity]

"This roar became louder and louder and louder ... and I look out and there is a 747," Vaisanen said." [after she had changed her stained underwear. :~)]

[USNBandit]

That was called the Hong Kong curve. The approach was an ILS approach to a decision height of around 700 ft. Then you were supposed to look 60 degrees to your right for the runway. There were corresponding approach lights to mark the intended curve. There was a currency requirement for landing. At least one of the crew had to be either 1 in 30 or 1 in 60.
There was an video clip floating around the internet a couple years ago of a KAL 747 making a huge play for the runway there. Very scary.

[Vinnie]

The incident I posted was Ransa Air not Taca. My brain is working slowly this AM, as usual.

I think Ransa flew rubber dog sh^^ out of Miami to S. America.

[nicollo]

re. TACA and RASP.

I had the pleasure and interesting experience of a crash landing in Asuncion courtesy of T.A.M. -- Transito Al Muerte.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Muslims believe that inshallah, the plane will crash if Allah wants it to, or reach its destination inshallah, only if Allah wishes, and they can do nothing to alter it, so they just go along for the ride, or crash it if Allah tells them to, as he so often does!

They must have been really irked when the name was taken...

[Libertina]

That will rattle some windows! If this is CAL, it has the worst flight record in Asia. I refused to fly on it. Cathay is much better.

[Mo1]

It was enough to make me pay attention and sit up a little---it ended up pulling a hard left and going down the river--it didn't come too close to the arch or to my office, but to see an airliner coming directly your way as you sit in an office building is something to think about.

Oh wow .. yep that would sure get my attention.

Every time we drive pass the AFB in Delaware, we always get stuck at the red light and to watch one of those huge military planes come in for a landing just makes your heart stop and you pray for the light to turn green

[SpeakLittle_ThinkMuch]

Here's a fun photo site for "interesting" landings.


http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?specialsearch=order_views&static=yes

[Archangelsk]

Anyone know which airport this plane was descending into?

[Paleo Conservative]

China Airlines Places Year's Largest Boeing 747-400 Order

SEATTLE, Dec. 24, 2002 - The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today confirmed China Airlines' order announcement for 10 Boeing 747-400s, valued at approximately $2 billion at list prices.
Excerpt from article

[lds23]

Reminds me of flying into Hong Kong's airport - now THAT's about as close as you can get to apartment buildings. I thought for sure there'd be laundry from the rooftop closelines on the landing gear.

[Squantos]

Oh yeah....."Sostenga por favor este cajón de pollos y goce de su vuelo con TACA".........:o)

Stay Safe Vinnie !

[pepsionice]

A story on China Airways. About four years ago, they had a flight scheduled to land at Frankfurt International. Plane was about 30 minutes from landings and the control tower started to have problems with the pilot...he had apparently never landed in his life at Frankfurt (even as a co-pilot), and it was already dark. After about 15 minutes of discussion, the pilot suddenly decided to make way to Cologne, about 20 minutes flying time from Frankfurt, which has a major runway but almost no flights after 6pm. He had landed once at Cologne before and apparently felt more comfortable landing there. Plane then diverted to Cologne and landed safely. He never mentioned a word to the passengers and they were all shocked when they got off and noticed the name of the airport. It took two hours for the China Air rep to drive all the way up to Cologne and handle the hostile passengers. The pilot was put on suspended statsus and the plane sat there for 24 hours until they got a sub pilot to arrive and take it down to Frankfurt. Totally messed up their flight schedule.

One gets the impression that they have mostly former military pilots, who had limited flight time in the first place, but have connections to ensure their hiring at the airline. They pay extremely low wages as compared to most international airlines. Rumor has it that they keep their flight crew at strictly 2-star hotels.

For any American flying internationally...this is the last airline that you want to fly with. Even Egypt Air is rated better than these bozos.

[CyberAnt]

"Hawaii" is a lot of islands. Where specifically did this take place??