Hualien – Taitung – Kaohsiung

On January 2, 1969 at 08:12 PM, Hualien – Taitung – Kaohsiung experienced a crash involving Douglas C-47 Skytrain (DC-3), operated by China Airlines, with the event recorded near Mt Paku Pingtung County (<U+5C4F><U+6771><U+7E23>).

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

24 people were known to be on board, 24 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 5, passengers on board: 19, passenger fatalities: 19, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. Flight 226/227 was a scheduled domestic flight from Kaohsiung to Hualien and return with an intermediate stop at Taitung. It departed Kaohsiung at 1704 hours GMT on a VFR flight plan valid for the whole journey: after a 15-minute stop at Taitung it arrived at Hualien at 1829 hours. It departed Hualien at 1905 hours, arrived at Taitung at 1940 hours and departed Taitung at 1954 hours with an estimated time of arrival at Kaohsiung of 2040 hours. When the aircraft became overdue at Kaohsiung Airport the tower controller started calling the aircraft but in vain. He immediately notified Taipei Area Control Centre and requested it to initiate search action by radio communications. This was done without success. On the following day a T-33 of the Chinese Air Force Academy was instructed to undertake a search mission. It discovered the wreckage of the aircraft at 1855 hours. The coordinates of the accident site were 22° 31'N - 120° 44' 45" E, at an elevation of 6 420 ft. The accident occurred at 2012 hours. All 24 occupants were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration B-309, MSN 12541, year of manufacture 1944.