TAIPEI, Taiwan, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- One engine on TransAsia flight GE235 went idle and the pilots may have shut off the other before the turbo-prop aircraft spiraled into a river earlier this week, killing at least 35 people, Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council said.
The council's executive director, Thomas Wang, said flight-recorder data shows the plane's right engine triggered an alarm shortly after takeoff. The data did not show the engine had shut down, but instead went idle. After that, the pilot may have shut down the other engine, the only one producing power, and couldn't get it to restart.
Wang said investigators will continue to look into all the reasons the left engine stopped working, including pilot error. He said there are many reasons the left engine could have stopped.
"Either someone reduced it or something else happened, a mechanical failure," Wang said. "We don't know."
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The black boxes on the plane revealed the engines did not provide enough thrust for two minutes after takeoff. Data suggests the flight crew unsuccessfully tried to restart them, authorities said.
The plane, traveling from Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei to the island of Kinmen, was carrying 58 passengers and crew. At least 35 are dead, 15 people have survived.
According to investigators, the aircraft started having trouble 37 seconds after takeoff, and the pilot quickly announced problems: "Mayday, mayday. Engine flameout."The aircraft turned on its side, clipped a bridge and plunged into the Keelug River.
It could take up to a year before the investigators determine the full extent of the problems aboard the plane, Taiwan's top aviation safety official Thomas Wang told reporters. A preliminary report is expected in a month.
"It's only the third day so we can't say too much," he said. "We haven't ruled anything out."
Investigators said when the pilot realized the plane was going to crash, he deliberately steered it away from the buildings and homes in downtown Taipei.
This is the second TransAsia crash in less than a year. In July, 48 died after a TransAsia aircraft crashed on an island off the coast of Taiwan.
