TransAsia promises money to crash victims' families

Taiwan's TransAsia Airway held a meeting with the families of the passengers killed in last week's plane crash Sunday, and promised to give compensation to relatives from both the Chinese mainland and the island.

During the one-hour meeting, hosted by the chief executive of TransAsia, the company said it would provide a NT$1,200,000 ($37,902) funeral subsidy per victim to the families. But the airline and the families have failed to reach an agreement on other compensation arrangements, and will discuss these in their second meeting, which is planned for Wednesday.

Liu Chung-chi, a TransAsia spokesperson, said that so far 41 victims' families have received NT$200,000 in relief funds that have been made available to the relatives of those killed or injured while four families have yet to collect the funeral subsidy.

He stressed that the airline will try their best to compensate each victim and their families reasonably, the local media reported.

The airline will also hold memorial rituals on Monday and Tuesday.

Flight GE235 crashed into the Keelung River, Taipei, Taiwan on February 4 just minutes after it took off, with 58 passengers and crew on board, killing 40 people, injuring 15. Three passengers are missing as of press time. Rescuers continued to look for the missing passengers on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Aviation Safety Council has started analyzing the aircraft's two black boxes, and found that something went wrong with one of the engines minutes after take-off, sending the pilots an alarm, and less than a minute after this, the other engine was switched off and then restarted. The exact cause of the crash is still under investigation.

The council has also ordered an oral assessment of all TransAsia's pilots between February 6 and 9. Any pilots that fail the examination will be suspended from flying.

A TransAsia flight scheduled to fly from Shanghai to Taiwan was reportedly delayed on Thursday as the aircraft's monitoring systems showed that there was a problem with its engines while it was taxiing on the runway. The flight was carrying more than 250 passengers and a total of 72 passengers requested their tickets be refunded, according to ifeng.com.