=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2002/05/30/i= nternational1234EDT0607.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, May 30, 2002 (AP) After deadly crash, China Airlines faces the old question: Is it safe? WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer (05-30) 09:34 PDT TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- The chairman of the foundation that oversees China Airlines offered his resignation Thursday, days after a Hong Kong-bound flight broke up over the Taiwan Strait and killed all 225 people aboard. Tsay Jaw-yang -- chairman of the quasi-governmental China Aviation Development Foundation that has a 71 percent stake in the carrier -- gave no explanation of his offer to resign. Earlier Thursday, lawmakers had questioned him in the legislature and demanded he take responsibility for the accident and stand down. Tsay offered his resignation to Premier Yu Shyi-kun, and it has not yet been accepted. The offer came as Taiwan's president joined a growing chorus demanding deep reforms at China Airlines. "China Airlines needs to reflect on this tragedy and make sweeping reforms," President Chen Shui-bian said in a statement. Although the cause of Saturday's crash was still unknown, investors and politicians have been quick to point fingers at Taiwan's biggest carrier, which has struggled to overcome a reputation for being one of the world's most dangerous airlines. It was the airline's fourth deadly accident in eight years. The Boeing 747-200 went down on Saturday, 20 minutes after taking off fr= om Taipei. Its stock has plunged since the crash, adn the company's ownership structure appears headed for a major shake-up. The government announced that the airline needed to become a private company if it wanted to improve its management and safety operations. Officials said they would draw up a privatization plan within two weeks. Delta Airlines has postponed a code-sharing deal with the carrier that w= as supposed to begin Saturday. Under such arrangements airlines share one plane on a route using flight numbers for both airlines. Retired Taiwanese air force officers founded China Airlines in 1959, and the carrier had a stiff military culture that frequently put retired fighter jet pilots in the cockpits of airliners. A horrific crash in 1994 pressured the airline to begin reforming. An Airbus A300-600 exploded during an aborted landing in Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people. Four years later, a China Airlines Airbus A300-600 returning from Bali, Indonesia, crashed while landing in Taipei, killing 203 people, following pilot error. Before Saturday, the airline's last fatal accident was in 1999, when an MD-11 jetliner flipped over and burst into flames, killing three people during a crash landing in a storm in Hong Kong. The investigation has yet to announce conclusions. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 AP