TransAsia closes down after fatal air crashes

Taipei : Taiwan's troubled TransAsia Airways said Tuesday it would close down after two deadly plane crashes, massive financial losses and an insider trading probe. 

Board members reached the decision at a hastily called meeting, with all flights immediately axed.

Chief executive officer Liu Tung-ming bowed in a sign of contrition as he told reporters of the "painful" decision. 

"I'm sorry that our recent efforts could not meet public expectations," Liu said. 

"The board meeting convened today has approved the decision to dissolve the company and suspend all flights from today."

The decision will be formalised by a shareholders' meeting next January. 

"We choose to dissolve the company at this time when we are still able to take care of our employees and passengers," said chairman Vincent Lin.

He promised to fully refund all tickets and said the suspension of flights was estimated to affect 100,000 passengers.

The dramatic crash of flight GE235 in February 2015 grabbed global headlines as car dashcam footage showed it clipping a road bridge and careering into a river shortly after take-off from Taipei, killing 43 people.

An investigation blamed a catalogue of pilot errors, with one found to have mistakenly switched off the only functioning engine after the other had failed. 

It came just seven months after another jet slammed into trees and houses near Magong city on Taiwan's scenic Penghu island, leaving 48 dead. 

The pilots were flying below the minimum altitude required in poor visibility in a procedural mistake widespread among TransAsia's pilots at the time, the Aviation Safety Council said in its investigation report.

TransAsia, Taiwan's first private airline, was set up in 1951. It said it had introduced six training programmes following the two crashes.