China Airlines, safe?

The flight which occasioned this question will be long in the past, but this answer may reassure others in a similar position.

Even though China Airlines do not have quite as good a record as one would hope, on any short trip to China (say 2 to 4 weeks) you are far more likely to die crossing a Chinese road than in one of their aircraft.

I have flown dozens of internal flights in China plus 12 journeys bewteen China and New Zealand in the last four years. I have probably travelled on every Chinese airline carrier and with China Airlines (which is effectively The Taiwanese national carrier). I am always aware that any airline flight may be my last but I would be happy enough to fly with China airlines. Apart from what you can read, my experience is that some airlines operating in China are noticeably more lax and casual about safety, but none have terrible accident records. China Airlines record is somewhat worse than that for most of the small internal Chinese carriers, but they are also larger than almost any others and do many much longer journeys than the average for the area.

Gruesome – but still not actually terrible:
In 2008, when I was going to make about the longest air trip you can in China (to Urumqi from South East China) I read up on the records of all the airlines operating in China. I have actually felt much safer when flying ever since! Most airlines with any sort of size lose an occasional aircraft through happenstance. Most of the Chinese carriers had lost one in the 10 to 20 year period and few if any in the last 10 years. China airlines had lost 4 within 20 years, two of which were in the last 10 years (one just). Their record has not got any worse since then. Looking at the record you cite only 4 flights had very large or total loss of life – these were in 1989, 1994, 1998 &2002. The 2002 loss was due to failure to follow maintenance procedures more than 20 years earlier. Certainly one would wish for better statistics, but when looked at objectively, they seem to have got it right in the last 10 years, or 14 years if you discount the 20 year old accident-waiting-to-happen. The 2007 wing slat bolt incident is obviously poor, but far less unacceptable than the metal part that killed a Concorde. And the Australian national airline QANTAS who pride themselves on their quality of service had a horrendous run of problems a few years back with compressor blade failures, inspection hatches falling off in flight and more. A small amount of ‘bad stuff’ happens. That’s life. Odds are that it will never affect you even if you are a very frequent flyer.
If you were travelling around the Caribbean my answer may be different :-(.

Given that they’re not on the list of Airlines banned in the European Union, they’re safer than many, many airlines, and also meet all safety criteria specified by the EU. That’s a pretty strict standard.

Also remember, even with a dodgy airline, statistically it’s still safer than driving. Would you get in a car? Cool, you’ll be fine in the plane too (statistically, of course).

I’ve flown China Airlines several times — LAX-Taipei-Jakarta — and have never encountered any maintenance-related problem (or noticed any lack of training on behalf of the crew). Unlike, say, Indonesian and Iranian carriers, I don’t think China Airlines has ever been banned from traveling to European airports.

I’ve flown China Airlines many times, and I’m still here. They are the cheaper carrier based out of Taiwan, but they aren’t the worst airlines I’ve ever been on.

Statistically speaking, there is very little chance anything will happen to you on China airlines. That being said, they do have a reputation in Taiwan as being not-the-safest carrier. They lack a lot of amenities the premium carrier in Taiwan has (EVA air), but they have seats for you and typically don’t drop out of the air.

Plus, I would fly them over Tiger any day.

Edit: Forgot to add, it seems to me that since the flight where the plane broke apart in mid-air (2002), China airlines has stepped up their game a little bit. I don’t recall a single incident since then. Other than another engine explosion in 2007, however nobody was hurt.

Edit 2: I checked that wikipedia you posted. You should note that most of those all-dead crashes are in Taiwan, mostly smaller planes. A couple of the larger ones were at the old airport, which isn’t exactly the best (swing by SongShan airport if you are ever in Taiwan, it is pretty bad.) The new airport is much nicer.