Taipei, July 5 (CNA) The engine of a helicopter that crashed last month and killed acclaimed director Chi Po-lin and two others on board has been sent to the United States to help shed light on the cause of the accident.
The Bell-206B chopper belonging to Emerald Pacific Airlines was being used by Chi to get some aerial footage for the sequel to his 2013 documentary "Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above" when it crashed in a mountainous area in Hualien County on June 10.
The fuselage of the chopper broke in two, with wreckage scattered over a wide radius.
Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council said the engine, which was manufactured by Rolls-Royce in the United States, was removed from the wreckage and sent to the U.S. for further analysis, and it will be at least two or three months before results are available.
Precisely determining a cause of the accident could be difficult. The chopper, made in Canada, was consumed by fire after the crash, limiting the amount of wreckage left behind, and it was not equipped with either a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder.
As a result, the council said it will screen through the limited wreckage collected to figure out what happened.
"We will not miss any details," the ASC pledged.
Emerald Pacific Airlines has said the fire that broke out after the crash was particularly perplexing, because aviation kerosene is different from regular kerosene and has a high burning point, making it difficult to ignite.
The helicopter's original manufacturer, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada have all sent officials to take part in the crash investigation.
