Captain Switches Off Wrong Engine Plane Crashed

"Wow, pulled back the wrong side throttle," the 41-year-old was heard to say on voice recordings seconds before the crash in February.
The captain of a TransAsia Airways plane mistakenly switched off the aircraft's only working engine before it crashed into a river, killing 43 people.

Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council (ASC) also said in its latest report that Captain Liao Jian-zong had failed simulator training in May 2014, partly because he had insufficient knowledge of how to deal with an engine flame-out on take-off.

According to the report, there was confusion in the cockpit as the two captains tried to regain control of the plane after the other engine lost power around three minutes into the doomed flight.

Mr Liao reduced the throttle on the working engine but did not appear to realise his mistake until it was too late.

He tried to restart the engine before a junior first officer, who was also in the cockpit as part of his training, said: "Impact, impact, brace for impact." 

Those words were the last heard on the data recordings.

Seconds later the ATR 72-600, which had 58 people on board, crashed upside down into a shallow river in downtown Taipei after it lurched between buildings, clipping an overpass and a taxi. Fifteen people survived. 

A source with direct knowledge of the report told Reuters the working engine had been shut off. 

Data readings showed the almost-new turboprop ATR 72-600 stalled and crashed shortly after it was switched off.