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TransAsia Pilot Acknowledged Cutting Wrong Engine, Crash Report Says

A still image taken from a dashboard video camera showed the TransAsia Airways plane clipping a roadway on its way down in Taipei on Feb. 4.Credit...Tvbs Taiwan, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

HONG KONG — The pilot of a plane that plunged over buildings, clipped a road and slammed into a river in Taiwan in February acknowledged seconds before impact that he had shut off the wrong engine, according to a report on the deadly crash released Thursday.

The report from the Aviation Safety Council in Taiwan also said that the pilot had failed a simulator test last year but passed a makeup exam.

The Feb. 4 crash of TransAsia Airways Flight 235, which was filmed by dashboard cameras that showed the plane plummeting over an elevated roadway in Taipei, the capital, killed 43 passengers and crew members, including the pilot, and injured 17 people, two of them on the ground.

The right engine of the ATR 72-600, a twin-engine turboprop, stopped producing thrust shortly after takeoff from Taipei Songshan Airport, according to the Aviation Safety Council’s report. But the pilot, Liao Chien-tsung, 42, apparently thought there was a problem with the left engine, which he shut off less than a minute later.

The shutting down of the wrong engine was seen as a likely cause of the crash when the Aviation Safety Council released its initial finding in February. A conclusion on the crash’s cause is to be included in a final report scheduled to be published next year. The report issued Thursday stops short of laying blame, but it offers new details about what went wrong.

“Wow, pulled back the wrong side throttle,” Mr. Liao said seconds before the plane banked sharply, hitting a taxi and a barrier on the elevated roadway before crashing into the Keelung River, according to a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder.

The report said Mr. Liao had failed a May 31, 2014, simulator test over emergency procedures including engine fires, loss of hydraulic systems and flying on a single engine. After another training session, he passed a follow-up check a month later. But subsequent training in Singapore found that he had “insufficient knowledge leading to hesitations” during oral tests about what to do during an engine shutdown on takeoff or loss of electronic engine controls, according to the report.

On Thursday, TransAsia Airways executives bowed in apology at a news conference and said they were strengthening safety procedures and pilot training.

“We sincerely accept these criticisms with an open mind,” said the airline’s chief executive, Peter Chen. “I represent TransAsia in offering our deepest apologies for the harm to society caused by this incident.”

It was the second deadly crash for TransAsia in just over six months. Last July, a TransAsia ATR 72 flying to Magong, in the outlying Penghu Islands of Taiwan, crashed as it was attempting to land in rain and wind shortly after a typhoon passed through the area. Forty-eight people were killed.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: World Briefing | Asia; Taiwan: Pilot Acknowledged Error. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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