Taiwan Pilot avoided bigger tragedy by ditching plane in river

Liao Chien-tsung(second from left), was identified as the pilot of the crashed TransAsia Airways plane. [Photo/ETTV]

TAIPEI/BEIJING, --Pilot of the crashed TransAsia Airways plane narrowly avoided hitting buildings and ditched the stalled aircraft in a river, likely averting a worse disaster, according to a report.

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.

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

According to Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, 22 of the dead were from the Chinese mainland. Altogether 31 passengers from the Chinese mainland, including three children, were onboard Flight GE235 which was heading for Jinmen from Taipei.

The mainland passengers were on trips organized by two travel agencies from Xiamen city in Fujian province, Taiwan tourism authority confirmed.

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.

Taiwan 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 6,922 hours.

The Taiwan Aviation Safety Council said it has invited accident investigators from the Chinese mainland to take part in the accident investigation.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Thursday afternoon that the mainland civil aviation authorities will dispatch investigators.

Investigators from France, producer of the aircraft, and from Canada, producer of the engine, have also been invited.

Meanwhile, TransAsia decided on Thursday to hand out compensation of 200,000 new Taiwan dollars (about $6,356) to each injured victim (including the two in the taxi), and compensation of 1.2 million new Taiwan dollars to the family of each identified fatality.

As of present, 44 family members of the mainland victims have arrived in Taiwan.

Since the crash, Taiwan's civil aeronautics authority has conducted safety checks on power systems of the island's ATR-72 aircraft.

Chen Deming, president of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, expressed his hope for more efforts in the rescue and said that a work team has been sent to Taiwan to help the aftermath.

Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou visited hospitals and expressed condolences to both mainland and Taiwan families. He urged full strength in rescue and asked administrative bureaus to carry out strict inspection into the accident.

Many Taiwanese social organizations and volunteers also expressed condolences and provided rescue materials.

According to the authority, TransAsia had already completed two flights using ATR-72 aircraft on Wednesday before the crash, with flight and maintenance reports of these flights featuring no record of malfunction.

Dispatchers on duty denied the possibility of a rushed takeoff when interviewed by investigators.

aipei Songshan Airport had canceled 11 local flights, which were all due to be served by ATR-72 aircraft, by 11:45 am on Thursday, according to the airport's website.

A cross-Strait emergency response mechanism has been launched to deal with the accident.

According to Taipei authorities, the crashed plane had been in service since April 2014 and was subject to a routine safety check last month.

TransAsia announced on Thursday that passengers who wanted to cancel their bookings would have their usual commission fees waived.

This is not the first time that an ATR-72 aircraft has crashed in Taiwan. On July 23, 2014, TransAsia Airways flight GE222 crashed on Taiwan's Penghu Island, killing 48 people.

TransAsia Airways, founded in 1951, was Taiwan's first private airline, mainly focusing on short overseas flights.

In a separate development, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office on Thursday said a planned visit by Zhang Zhijun, head of the office, to Jinmen has been delayed, as "both sides need to focus on the aftermath of the accident," Ma said.

Zhang was originally scheduled to meet with Taiwan's mainland affairs chief Wang Yu-chi on Feb. 7-8.

The updated date of the meeting was not revealed immediately.

Source: (Chinadaily.com.cn/Agencies/Xinhua)/Asia News Network

Relatives of plane crash victims arrive in Taiwan

Video:http://t.cn/Rw7QSjv

People's Bank of China (PBOC) joins monetary easing wave: cuts reserve requirement to spur growth

A woman walks past the headquarters of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, in Beijing, in this file picture taken June 21, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

http://t.cn/RwhoVB4

PBOC cuts bank reserve requirement to spur growth - CCTV News - CCTV.com English

China's banks' cash holding as reserves were at a lowered level, after the central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio, or RRR, which took effect on Thursday.

The PBOC cut the RRR on Wednesday by 50 basis points, which was the first industry-wide cut in more than 2 and a half years. After the cut, big banks' RRR was lowered to 19.5 percent. Meanwhile, the RRR was lowered by an additional 50 basis points for urban and rural commercial banks that lend to small and medium sized enterprises.

In line with investors' expectations, analysts say the move would help in injecting more liquidity and support economic growth.

"The cut in RRR on the one side helps the steady growth of the credit sector, supports economic growth and structural adjustment. At the same time, it's also helpful in lowering companies' financing costs, as banks will adjust their loan pricing because they have less debt stress," says Lian Ping, chief economist of Bank of Communication.

"The PMI contracted in the latest month, prices of bulk commodities dropped further globally, and the level of price increase was low. These gave us more space to cut the RRR and interest rates," says Zhu Baoliang, chief economist of State Information Center.

China cuts bank reserve requirement to spur growth

Night view of skyscrapers and high-rise buildings of Jianwai Soho and Yintai Centre in CBD in Beijing, China. [Photo/IC]

China's central bank made a system-wide cut to bank reserve requirements on Wednesday, the first time it has done so in over two years, to unleash a fresh flood of liquidity to fight off economic slowdown and looming deflation.

The announcement cuts reserve requirements - the amount of cash banks must hold back from lending - to 19.5 percent for big banks, a reduction of 50 basis points that would free up 600 billion yuan ($96 billion) or more held in reserve at Chinese banks - which could then inject 2-3 trillion yuan into the economy after accounting for the multiplying effect of loans.

"The central bank has tried to use short-term policy tools to inject more liquidity, but such tools were not enough, so it has to cut RRR," said Wen Bin, senior economist at Minsheng Bank in Beijing, adding that signs of increasing capital outflows and a sliding domestic currency were particularly worrying.

The reduction follows a surprise cut to guidance lending rates by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) in November, but that adjustment had negligible impact on spurring productive investment, so many had predicted the more dramatic move that the central bank has now delivered.

"Today's announcement isn't a surprise," wrote Mark Williams of Capital Economics in a research note reacting to the news.

"It is consistent with the more accommodative stance being taken since the benchmark interest rate cut."

Officials had previously said they would wait for fourth quarter data to be released before deciding on further easing measures, and that data gave little cause for comfort.

An official survey of China's mammoth factory sector, the purchasing managers index (PMI), showed it shrank unexpectedly for the first time in nearly 2-1/2 years in January, and other indicators have also been worrying, including signs of strengthening capital outflows and a weakening in China's service sector.

"The main reason was that the PMI was much lower than expected in January, so if there is no further policy reaction, it's very likely that China's Q1 GDP growth could fall below 7 percent," said Liu Li-gang, an economist at ANZ.

Policymakers had previously signalled that they were comfortable with slowing net growth in the name of economic restructuring away from capital-intensive manufacturing toward services, but if restructuring attempts set off an economy-wide slide, Beijing would find its options increasingly constrained.

External factors contributed to the timing of the decision, economists said, such as deflationary pressures from a recent collapse in energy prices and easing moves by other foreign central banks, though domestic issues were still more important.

"The recent wave of central bank easing may have played a role, but we think the above domestic factors are the main reasons behind the RRR cut today," wrote Zhu Haibin of J.P. Morgan, adding that the timing was not surprising, given rising systemic cash demand in the run-up to the week-long Chinese New Year holiday in mid February.

However, the weak impact of previous stimulus measures has some worried that liquidity tools are losing their effectiveness in China, given that the volume of debt required to produce a unit of GDP is steadily rising, given endemic industrial overcapacity and entrenched economic inefficiencies in the state sector.

The bank injected an estimated 644.5 billion yuan into the system through medium-term loan facilities in late 2014, without producing much in the way of stimulation, and swamping the system with money it cannot digest carries other risks.

Previous easing moves are already credited with setting off a massive leverage-fuelled rally in Chinese stock markets, which has become as much a cause for concern as celebration, as it highlights the risk that easing would simply reinflate asset bubbles in stocks, real estate and industrial housing that regulators have been trying to let the air out of for years.

China's economic growth slowed to 7.4 percent in 2014 - the weakest in 24 years - from 7.7 percent in 2013.

Analysts polled by Reuters in January expect economic growth to sag further this year to around 7 percent.

(Agencies) - China Daily/Asia News Network

Related:

Backgrounder: Decoding China's reserve requirement ratio (RRR)
BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's stock markets rallied after the central bank lowered the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) on Thursday for the first time in over two years, underscoring the powerful sway of this unique monetary policy tool.  Full story

China cuts reserve ratio by 50 basis points
BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank on Wednesday decided to lower the reserve requirement ratio (RRR), the minimum level of reserves banks must hold, by 50 basis points from Feb. 5.  Full story 

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Climing over the Great Firewall

As the Chinese government further restricts online communication, virtual private networks are trying to overcome the barriers.

There are alternatives to the blocked services, but let's just admit that the features on the censored sites are still the most appealing and user-friendly.

IT began with Line and KakaoTalk, foreign instant messaging apps, around July last year.

Instagram was next, during the height of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in September.

I remember reaching out for my mobile phone one day after I woke up, checking my Instagram feed as part of my morning ritual, but for some reason, it just would not load smoothly.

Last month, the default mail app in my phone, which is synced to my Gmail account, also stopped working.

These bans imposed by China restricted communication even further as sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and Youtube have long been inaccessible in mainland. The censorship is put in place to control what the people see online.

Frustrated, a fellow foreign journalist commented: “The Chinese government has been actively advocating connectivity, but the ban is causing the total opposite.”

To overcome the inconveniences, foreigners residing in China and some Chinese nationals rely mainly on virtual private networks (VPNs) to access the blocked sites and apps.

With a fee, VPNs help users bypass restrictions and censorship on their mobile phones and computers by connecting them to servers outside China.

The act of using VPNs is cheekily known as “fan qiang” or “climbing over the wall” as the censorship is referred to as the Great Firewall, after the Great Wall of China.

Of course, there are alternatives to the blocked services, but let’s just admit that the features on the censored sites are still the most appealing and user-friendly.

Communicating with the world outside China is also easier with the common platforms of Gmail and Facebook, but unfortunately, accessing them within the borders of China is difficult.

Lately, the grip on the Internet was tightened with the Chinese authorities clamping down on VPN services. Users reported interruptions and failures to connect to VPNs.

Responding to the interrupted services, an official from the Industry and Information Technology Ministry (MIIT) said in a press conference this week that the move is essential for the healthy development of the Internet in China.

MIIT director of telecom development Wen Ku said the ministry has to employ new methods to “maintain cyber security and steady operation” with the rapid development of the Internet.

He reminded foreign sites to abide by Chinese laws if they want to operate in the country.

“Certain negative content should be regulated according to the Chinese law,” he said.

To a question on whether blocking VPNs would affect the vitality of the Internet, Wen said the development of Internet services in China is concrete proof of the effective policies, citing Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba as an example of success stories.

But as the Chinese saying goes, “As the virtue rises one foot, the vice rises ten feet.”

While the Chinese authorities upgraded the Great Firewall, VPN providers such as StrongVPN and Astrill vowed to overcome the disruption.

“Notice to StrongVPN users, we are currently working diligently to find a resolution with certain servers not working in China,” StrongVPN posted on its website.

It also enticed possible customers to subscribe to its services to “protect your online security, personal privacy and help promote Internet freedom”.

Astrill said the increased censorship is “just a way for China to say ‘we don’t want you here’”.

It told its users, “We know how access to unrestricted Internet is important for you and we are doing our best.”

The tug-of-war continues.

Source: Check-in China by Tho Xin Yin

The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.