HONG KONG — The pilot on a 1999 China Airlines flight that flipped on landing here and killed three people blames the Boeing plane for the accident and says politics prompted the government report that found him at fault, a newspaper reported Sunday.
“There is a problem with that aircraft – ask any pilot and they will say the same,” Gerardo Lettich was quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying about the Boeing MD-11 he piloted.
Lettich, 63, said declining MD-11 sales are proof it is problematic, the Post reported.
“In reality, the industry delivered its own verdict, because the MD-11 has disappeared from the aircraft market. This was the real condemnation,” Lettich was quoted as saying from his home in Italy.
A Hong Kong government report released Friday said Lettich failed to control the plane’s rapid rate of descent as it landed during a tropical storm with 300 people aboard.
The aircraft tilted to the right, its right wing clipping the runway and rupturing the wing’s fuel tank, sparking an explosion, the report said. The accident killed three and seriously injured 50 people.
Hong Kong-based Boeing Co. spokesman Mark Hooper said the company deferred to the government report and declined further comment.
Taiwanese carrier China Airlines says weather was a main cause of the accident. The airline has one of the worst safety records in the world, with 10 fatal crashes since 1970.
Lettich said in his interview with the Post that he was made the scapegoat because no one was willing to take on Boeing.
“It was all down to the balance of power. On one side there was China Airlines and me. On the other side was the Hong Kong authority, and more importantly, Boeing. It was very, very important for Boeing not be put on trial,” he was quoted as saying.
So his only “evidence” that the aircraft was the cause of the accident was that the MD-11 had a poor sales record and that they aren’t produced anymore? Oh man, I can’t believe that someone gave this guy a forum to spout this dribble.
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February 7, 2005 at 5:13 pm