Spirit of CA Flight 611

Why? Why did this have to happen to me? Why did my demise come without warning? How could I, the world's most popular Jumbo Jet, a state of the art of aircraft machinery, simply fall out of the sky, killing everyone on aboard?


I was a Boeing 747 - 209B, built in 1979 to serve an airline to carry passengers in flight. I enjoyed flying, always did. China Airlines was good. Me and other planes took lots of passengers and proved to be very reliable. However, there was one route that I always liked to take. It was called Taiwan Strait. It was one of the most widely places on the planet. It was also called the "Golden Route" since it made so much money. Whenever I crossed that route, I got a sense of goodness and pleasure. Other planes agreed too. I was proud to be what I was, a big aircraft with great pride. But my life would take a terrifying turn when I became 6 months old.


It was February 7 1980. I was arriving at Hong Kong airport at night. As I came in to land, I felt a sudden sharp of quick pain at my rear section. It was over in seconds, but I can defiantly tell that it was painful. As my pilots parked me at the gate to let my passengers off, I was told that I landed with my nose too high and that my tail had hit the ground and scraped along the runway. This was called a "tailstrike" incident. I was shocked by this. But lucky, I was not the first the 747 to have this. In 1978, before I was built, JAL (Japan Airlines) Flight 123 had a tailstrike incident when her tail scraped the runway while landing at Tokyo International Airport. 7 years later, I heard that Flight 123 died in terrible accident when her tail was blow off during flight. All 15 crew members and 505 out of 509 passengers died, resulting in a total of 520 deaths and 4 survivors. Flight 123's death, still remains as the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history.


The pain was still stinging in my rear section when I went to be repaired. The repair men did what they could to mend my damaged rear section. Boy, I did not like the way how it went, all the drilling and scratching were so painful... ooh, I hated it but it had to be done so that I could get back into service. The repair men finished repairing me by putting a doubler plate over my damaged area. I was glad to be back in the air, taking passengers to their destinations. As I grew older, I proved to be very useful and made China Airlines proud. My friends were also proud of me.


May 25 2002, a normal day like no other. I felt as strong as ever. I reached the age of 22. Today, I was to carry 225 passengers across the Taiwan Strait to Hong Kong. It would take an hour to complete the flight. I took off at 14:50 local time and was expected to arrive at Hong Kong at 16:28. As I climbed steadily towards my cruising altitude, I began to have memories of the old days when I was young. Oh yes, the Taiwan Strait was my favorite place to fly over. But my memories and my life was shattered by what happened next. It was horrifying but it ended fast.


25 minutes after taking off, at an altitude of 35,000 feet, something seemed to be cracking from my rear section. Suddenly my tail ripped away from my body. I screamed in pain as I started to fall from the sky. Then the rest of my body was quickly ripped to pieces, freeing my spirit. I wandered down to earth in a daze as debris from my shattered body fell into the sea. I was crying with total sadness. I wasn't doomed to be alone. Spirits from other 747's, including JAL Flight 123 comforted me in my fate. For those who's loved me and flew me over the years where deeply sorry for my loss. All the people that were aboard me were dead. They died with me as did my crew. But at least I died in a peaceful place, a place that I loved so much. The Taiwan Strait was my resting place.  


Investigators soon got to work to find out what caused my demise. There had never been any problems with Boeing's 747-200 series planes. I was one of them. All of China Airlines 747-200 series planes were grounded.


As the investigation continued I was told that my death seemed to have a lot in common with another 747 aircraft who died 6 years before me... TWA Flight 800. Local spirits told me where to find her. I went to visit her place where I saw that her body had been re-staged. I was shocked. Her spirit was there and she was surprised to hear what happened to me. Flight 800 told me about her demise, which made me want to cry. I was 3 years younger than her and we were both in our 20's when we died. Much like me, Flight 800 broke into pieces while still climbing. She crashed into the Atlantic shortly after taking off from New York. Suddenly, we were stuck by similarities between our flights... we were both 747s except that Flight 800 was a 747-100 series while I was a 747-200 series, we both disintegrated without warning while still climbing. We both took off in very hot weather. Could I have suffered the same fate as Flight 800? Only the investigators could solve that.


I decided to stay with the Spirit of TWA Flight 800 while the investigation continued. I soon became good friends with her. We spent a lot of time talking about the good days when we were both young and how much we were cared and loved by those who flew in us. Other spirits from other 747's joined us and we had a great time getting to know one another. This soothed my spirit and the painful feeling of my demise.

    
I was later informed about how what caused my demise. It had actually happen 22 years earlier when my tail hit the runway! I felt so sad and filled with shame at the same time. I became so insulted to hear that my repair for my rear section had not been done properly by the repair men! Talk about not doing something right and being careless. I wanted those men to be suede for what they did. Investigators also found out that my rear section had what were called fatigue cracks. This was where the trigger of my demise was found. My accident was the result of metal fatigue. Some even say that it was caused by overload or over stress! It came to me as a great relive that my demise was not a repeat of TWA Flight 800. My demise was caused by structural failure.


The investigators believed that the strain on my rear section could also have suggested that there could have been a crack growth which metal fatigue could have caused behind the doubler plate which was attached to me. I learnt that that there was no correction made to the doubler plate. This is what caused me subsequently to break up in mid air. If my repair was done correctly, would I still be here today?


China Airlines returned the remaining 747-200 series to service a few days later after maintenance checks. I was happy that the investigators had solved the mystery of my crash.


I've been able to put my death behind me but yet I still feel upset about it even though it's been 8 years since. Nowadays, I wander about both at Taiwan and Hong Kong airport, remembering my take offs and landings, but I mostly wander about at my favourite place, the place where I died with my passengers and crew, the Taiwan Strait. Remember me always, remember what I stood for. I am the Spirit of China Airlines Flight 611.