China Airlines Plane Explodes

Aug 20th, 2007 | By Jared Blank

A China Airlines 737 exploded in Okinawa shortly after landing earlier today. All of the passengers and crew managed to escape without injury (you can see a photo here. Amazing anyone lived).

I’m the first person to say that all first-world airlines are safe. However, China Airlines likely has the sketchiest safety record of any carrier outside the developing world, including 4 fatal accidents since 1994, plus this non-fatal accident. (My six flights on the airline were uneventful). Sure, it could just be a streak of terrible luck that these incidents happened on the same airline. But still.

2 comments
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iahphx August 20th, 2007 10:03 pm :
Maybe the People’s Republic should sue Taiwan for tarnishing their “good name” in commercial aviation! I’m sure most people who heard this thought “Oh, those Chinese airlines are so dangerous.”
Jared August 21st, 2007 12:18 pm :
Along those lines, I’m sure Air China can’t be too happy about the similarly named airline’s miserable safety record.

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