TAIPEI: A Cathay Dragon flight from Taiwan to Hong Kong made an emergency landing on Monday at the city it departed from after experiencing a “technical issue” shortly after take-off, the carrier said.
Cathay Pacific, the parent company of Cathay Dragon, said flight KA451 from Kaohsiung to Hong Kong made an “air return” and landed safely back at the southern Taiwanese city.
An official with Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) told AFP the emergency was caused by a “technical failure on one of the engines” and denied Taiwanese media reports that the plane had hit a bird.
The official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak with media, added an investigation was now under way.
The Apple Daily newspaper cited local aviation officials as saying the plane’s right engine emitted smoke during take-off and that local residents nearby said they had heard an explosive sound.
Cathay said the aircraft was an Airbus A330 and said arrangements were being made to get passengers on new flights.
Cathay Dragon flight makes safe emergency landing in Taiwan
Cathay Dragon flight makes safe emergency landing in Taiwan
- Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration told AFP the emergency was caused by a “technical failure on one of the engines” and denied Taiwanese media reports that the plane had hit a bird
Blair pressured UK officials over case against soldiers implicated in death of Iraqi
- Newly released files suggest ex-PM took steps to ensure cases were not heard in civilian court
- Baha Mousa died in British custody in 2003 after numerous assaults by soldiers over 36 hours
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair pressured officials not to let British soldiers be tried in civil courts on charges related to the death of an Iraqi man in 2003, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Baha Mousa died in British Army custody in Basra during the Iraq War, having been repeatedly assaulted by soldiers over a 36-hour period.
Newly released files show that in 2005 Antony Phillipson, Blair’s private secretary for foreign affairs, had written to the prime minister saying the soldiers involved would be court-martialed, but “if the (attorney general) felt that the case were better dealt with in a civil court he could direct accordingly.”
The memo sent to Blair was included in a series of files released to the National Archives in London this week. At the top of the memo, he wrote: “It must not (happen)!”
In other released files, Phillipson told Blair that the attorney general and Ministry of Defence could give details on changes to the law they were proposing at the time so as to avoid claims that British soldiers could not operate in a war zone for fear of prosecution.
In response, Blair said: “We have, in effect, to be in a position where (the) ICC (International Criminal Court) is not involved and neither is CPS (Crown Prosecution Service). That is essential. This has been woefully handled by the MoD.”
In 2005, Cpl Donald Payne was court-martialed, jailed for a year and dismissed from the army for his role in mistreating prisoners in custody, one of whom had been Mousa.
Payne repeatedly assaulted, restrained and hooded detainees, including as part of what he called “the choir,” a process by which he would kick and punch prisoners at intervals so that they made noise he called “music.”
He became the first British soldier convicted of war crimes, admitting to inhumanely treating civilians in violation of the 2001 International Criminal Court Act.
