| China Airlines Flight 204 | |
| Occurrence Type: | Accident |
| Type: | Takeoff from wrong runway, wrong turn after airborne due to pilot error |
| Site: | Chiashan mountain range, 5,5 km (3.4 mls) north off Hualien Airport, Taiwan |
| Aircraft Type: | Boeing 737-209 |
| Tail Number: | B-180 |
| Operator: | China Airlines |
| Iata: | CI204 |
| Icao: | CAL204 |
| Callsign: | DYNASTY 204 |
| Origin: | Hualien Airport |
| Destination: | Taoyuan International Airport |
| Occupants: | 54 |
| Passengers: | 47 |
| Crew: | 7 |
| Fatalities: | 54 |
| Survivors: | 0 |
China Airlines Flight 204 (CI204/CAL204) was a Boeing 737-209 that crashed into a mountain after takeoff from Hualien Airport, Taiwan, on 26 October 1989. The crash killed all 54 passengers and crew on board the aircraft.
The aircraft was a Boeing 737-209, MSN 23795, registered as B-180, that was manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 1986. It was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A engines.[1]
Flight 204 departed Hualien Airport on a short-haul domestic flight to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taoyuan International Airport) on the island of Taiwan[2] with 47 passengers and seven crew members aboard. Ten minutes after takeoff, the plane collided with a mountain in the Chiashan range at an altitude of approximately 2100m (6,900feet), 5.5 km (3.4 mi) north of the airport. All 54 passengers and crew members were killed.[1] [3] [4]
The major cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error, as the experienced pilot (15 years with China Airlines) and a novice copilot departed from the wrong runway, a mistake compounded by ground-control personnel who failed to spot the error. The aircraft then flew the climb-out procedure for the correct runway, and as a result, the aircraft made a left turn toward the mountains rather than a right turn toward the sea.[3] [5]