Out of Gas

China Airlines is back in the news again

TOKYO - A China Airlines plane made an emergency landing Wednesday at an airport in western Japan after it ran out of fuel in the second incident involving the Taiwanese carrier this week, an official said.

The jet was en route from Taipei to an airport in central Japan, but its pilots requested a landing at Kansai International Airport, saying the plane did not have enough fuel to complete its journey, according to airport official Maki Yamanaka.

The plane landed safely at Kansai shortly before 9 p.m., and there were no reports of injuries to the passengers or crew, Yamanaka said.

Officials could not immediately say how many people were on board or identify what kind of plane it was. The plane was refueled and was expected to continue on to Chubu International Airport, its intended destination, Yamanaka said.

This comes shortly after the incident on Okinawa where a China Airlines 737 caught on fire.

Commercial flights running out of fuel is a rare occurrence, but has happened in the past. Fuel exhaustion caused plane crashes include

Avianca Flight 52 outside of JFK airport New York in January 1990
United Airlines 173 outside of Portland Oregon in December 1978
ALM 980 in the Caribbean May 1970

I knew of those three crashes without having to reference Wikipedia. Call TFM a aviation disaster buff.

You would think commercial pilots would be aware of fuel needs before taking off in addition to monitoring consumption during flight. Apparently some people at China Airlines forgot those important tasks. When combined with their poor safety record, it is only stronger reason people should avoid this airline at any cost.

In news related to the Okinawa incident.

TOKYO (AFP) - China Airlines painted over its logo on the charred remains of a burnt-out plane as investigators Wednesday sifted through the debris to find out why the jet blew up moments after landing in Japan.

Television footage showed a maintenance crew in green suits whitening out the name China Airlines on the plane's mangled body as well as the Taiwanese carrier's plum flower emblem on its tail.

*****

China Airlines official Yoko Kuroda confirmed the carrier had whitened out the corporate logo late Tuesday with the permission of Japanese authorities.

"Our officials in Taiwan said they recognised that there was a precedent for painting over logos," said Kuroda, from the marketing branch of the airline's Tokyo office.

She declined to say the reason for the move.

The blotting out of a crashed plane's company name or logo is actually quite common. I own this book. In it are articles on both Air Canada and Air Florida incidents. Both show the airlines having taken the same step as China Airlines did on Tuesday. I guess the airlines do this to cut down on the bad publicity a crash is giving them. A wrecked airplane certianly isn't good for business.

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