Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103 facts for kids
A Far Eastern Air Transport Boeing 737-200 similar to the one that crashed
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | August 22, 1981 |
| Summary | Explosive decompression |
| Place | near Taipei |
| Passengers | 104 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 110 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-200 |
| Airline/user | Far Eastern Air Transport |
| Registration | B-2603 |
| Flew from | Taipei Songshan Airport |
| Flying to | Kaohsiung International Airport |
Far East Air Transport Flight 103, a Boeing 737-200, registration B-2603, departed Taipei Songshan Airport for Kaohsiung on 22 August 1981. The aircraft suffered an explosive decompression fourteen minutes after takeoff and disintegrated.
Contents
Summary
The aircraft had previously lost cabin pressure on 5 August; and earlier on the day of the crash it had departed Songshan Airport but the crew aborted the flight ten minutes later for the same reason. After repairs were made the aircraft departed Songshan Airport again and broke up shortly afterward.
Cause
Although there was early speculation that the crash was caused by a bomb, an investigation by the Republic of China Civil Aeronautics Board concluded that severe corrosion led to a pressure hull rupture. The severe corrosion was due to the many pressurization flight cycles the aircraft had experienced, and that cracks produced were probably undetected.
The wreckage was scattered across an area of 4 miles (6 km) located some 94 miles (151 km) south of Taipei. All 110 people onboard (110 passengers and crew, including eighteen Japanese citizens (among them Kuniko Mukōda) and two Americans) died. The accident was Taiwan's worst air disaster at the time, but is now the second-worst, behind China Airlines Flight 676.
Related pages
- Aloha Airlines Flight 243
- China Airlines Flight 611
- Japan Airlines Flight 123
- UK CAA Document CAA 429 World Airline Accident Summary (ICAO Summary 4/76)
- Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
See also
In Spanish: Vuelo 103 de Far Eastern Air Transport para niños
