Taiwan Airlines Flight 661 accident

Taiwan Airlines Flight 661 was a scheduled flight operated by Taiwan Airlines from Kaohsiung International Airport to Wang'an Airport in Penghu. On 15 April 1987, the flight suffered an elevator failure en route and then made a forced landing on Dongji Island, Wang'an Township, Penghu County; all 11 people on board survived. The wreckage of the aircraft remains on Dongji Island to this day and has become one of the island's well-known landmarks.

Course of the accident

On the afternoon of 15 April 1987, aircraft B-11111 operated service 661 from Kaohsiung to Wang'an. The takeoff had been scheduled for 1 pm that day, but because the passengers had all arrived early, it took off early at 12:45.

Captain Cheng Ming-kai and first officer Tsai Wang-wei stated that visibility was good after takeoff. However, about 25 minutes after takeoff (at about 1:10 pm), about 10 nautical miles from Dongji Island at an altitude of 2000 feet, the aircraft suddenly suffered a control surface failure; the fuselage began to shake violently and the aircraft descended sharply. As the destination, Wang'an Island, was still about 8 minutes' flying time away, the pilots judged that they could not maintain flight and decided to make a forced landing on nearby Dongji Island.

The pilots chose a grassy slope behind the Dongji branch of Wang'an Junior High School (now the offices of the South Penghu Marine National Park Headquarters) on Dongji Island for the forced landing. Because the ground was uneven, the aircraft suffered a heavy impact on touchdown: the nose wheel was destroyed, the right wing was damaged, both main landing gear legs broke off, and the nose was damaged from striking the sloping ground.

The aircraft slid about 30 metres on the grass before stopping. All 11 people on board (including 8 adult passengers, 1 infant and 2 crew members) were unharmed. All of them were evacuated from Dongji Island at 7:40 that evening aboard the ferry "Guangzheng" and arrived safely at Wang'an Island.