Dapeng Airlines Britten-Norman Islander crash
Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander · Pilot error in flying over unfavourable terrain
From Taipei International Airport, Taipei, Taiwan to Taitung Airport, Taitung, Taiwan
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ENG12RA034
- 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
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 3 · 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
- 0
- 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
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander
- Aircraft type
- Britten Norman BN-2
- Category
- Airplane
- 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-68801
- Operator
- Dapeng Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Taipei International Airport, Taipei, TaiwanTo Taitung Airport, Taitung, Taiwan
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Unknown
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Dapeng Airlines Britten-Norman Islander crash was an accident that occurred on Thursday 30 August 2012 when an aircraft carrying out a photographic survey of the island of Taiwan crashed into terrain, killing the 3 people on board, the two pilots and a photographer.
Accident
The aircraft was chartered to carry out an aerial photogrammetry mission with a captain, a first officer and an aerial photographer on board.
The aircraft took off at 07:26 from Taipei-Song Shan airport on an instrument departure. The planned mission was to carry out an aerial photogrammetry flight in the Hualien and Taitung area, and to proceed to Taitung airport to land.
Eighteen minutes after takeoff, the instrument flight plan was cancelled and the flight proceeded under visual flight rules (VFR).
At 08:27, the aircraft entered the Hualien County aerial photography area, maintaining an altitude of 8,300 feet to 8,500 feet. From 08:37 to 08:43, Taipei Approach informed the flight crew: "Radar cannot cover you... make sure to maintain visual flight".
The last contact with the flight was at 09:13 when Kaohsiung Approach Control contacted the aircraft.
ELT signals were received at 09:40 and the aircraft was located on 1 September at an altitude of about 9,568 feet on a wooded slope.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
After 1 year of investigation, it was determined that the possible probable cause was that the geography of the area was not favourable for climbing in circles or turning around to escape the mountainous area safely. The personnel on board chose to carry out aerial photogrammetry at Morakot when weather conditions permitted after completing the aerial photography at Wanrong Woods, without any prior planning, because the Morakot aerial photography had been delayed.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Accidente del Britten-Norman Islander de Dapeng Airlines” (revision 174056858, 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
NTSB narrative
On August 30, 2012, a Britten-Norman BN-2B-26 Islander plane, registration number B-68801, powered by two Lycoming 0-540-E4C5 reciprocating engines crashed in a high mountain area in northern Taiwan Republic of China while performing an aerial photography mission. The airplane was substantially damaged and all three persons on board were killed.
The Aviation Safety Council of Taiwan, Republic of China, is investigating the accident. As the state of manufacture of the engines, the NTSB has designated a U.S. Accredited Representative under the provisions of Annex 13 to the Convention on Civil Aviation to assist the Taiwanese Authorities in their investigation.
All inquiries concerning this accident should be directed to the Aviation Safety Council of Taiwan at:
Aviation Safety Council 11 Floor, No. 200, Sec.3, Beixin Rd., Xindian City, New Taipei County 231, Taiwan, Republic of China Website: URL:www.asc.gov.tw
Phone: 886-935628217 or 886-289127388
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Spanish Wikipedia article: Accidente del Britten-Norman Islander de Dapeng Airlines
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 174056858 · 2026-06-22 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q8186788
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ENG12RA034
- Event ID
- 20120919X93039
- Case number
- ENG12RA034
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- es Wikipedia article "Accidente del Britten-Norman Islander de Dapeng Airlines" (page 5397851, revision 174056858), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ENG12RA034 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record ENG12RA034
- Operation
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Dapeng Airlines Britten-Norman Islander crash" and NTSB case ENG12RA034, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.