Californian Among 54 Feared Dead in Plane Crash in Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A China Airlines Boeing 737 crashed into a bamboo-covered mountain Thursday minutes after taking off from the eastern city of Hualien, and airline officials said all 54 people aboard were feared dead.

The passengers included J. Wayne Phillips, vice president of Universal Paint Corp. in City of Industry, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb. A company secretary said that Phillips, 46, was in Taiwan on business.

China Airlines, which is Taiwan’s flag carrier, quoted Hualien control tower officials as saying they instructed the plane to turn right and fly over the sea, but the jet turned left over land instead. No explanation was given.

The crash occurred about 7 p.m. near Chia Min, a village of about 2,000 people, five minutes after the plane left Hualien’s airport. It was en route to Taipei 93 miles to the northwest, carrying 47 passengers and a crew of seven.

All the passengers except Phillips were Taiwanese.

China Airlines spokesman Lodge Lo said the passengers included four members of a family who were flying to attend the funeral of another family member.

A witness said he saw the plane hit the mountain. “Suddenly, there were huge flames and an explosion,” he said.

Hundreds of rescue workers headed to the rugged, bamboo-covered mountain on foot but could not find the wreckage because of poor visibility, police said. They said rain had extinguished the fire.

“We still cannot figure out why the accident happened. The plane is only two years old and it was in good condition,” Lo said.

In Seattle, Tom Cole, a spokesman for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, identified the aircraft as a 737-200 delivered to China Airlines in December, 1986. He had no other details.

Taiwan’s worst air disaster was in 1981, when 110 people died in the crash of a Far Eastern Air Transport Boeing 737.

In 1986, another China Airlines Boeing 737 crashed into the sea on a domestic flight, killing 13 people.