1979 China Airlines Boeing 707 accident
Boeing 707-324C · The 1979 accident of a China Airlines Boeing 707 occurred on 11 September 1979
From Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 6 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Boeing 707-324C
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 707
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- B-1834
- Operator
- China Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 6
- Route
- From Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)To Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1979 accident of a China Airlines Boeing 707 occurred on 11 September 1979. On that day a Boeing 707-324C, which was operating a training flight departing from and returning to Taipei-Chiang Kai Shek Airport, crashed into the Taiwan Strait. All six occupants of the aircraft were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
On that day several touch-and-go manoeuvres and takeoffs with simulated engine failure were practised with the aircraft. The last manoeuvre of this kind took place at 23:17. Two minutes after the aircraft had lifted off for the third time, the pilots lost control. The Boeing crashed into the sea in the Taiwan Strait a few hundred metres off the fishing harbour of Zhuwei, killing all six occupants.
Investigation and cause
Cause
Since the flight data recorder could not be recovered, it was not possible to clarify the accident beyond doubt. From the available findings the investigators concluded that the pilot in command had not noticed a loss of altitude in the darkness, so that he had not attempted to recover the aircraft before the impact on the water surface occurred.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der China Airlines 1979” (revision 251249342, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der China Airlines 1979
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 251249342 · 2024-12-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q111045713
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der China Airlines 1979" (page 12150033, revision 251249342), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.