On 23 July 2014, the ATR 72-500 twin turboprop operating the route crashed into buildings during approach to land in bad weather at Magong Airport.

[1] Flight 222 was scheduled to depart from Kaohsiung at 16:00 Taiwan time (08:00 UTC), but it was delayed by bad weather and took off at 17:43.

The weather at Magong Airport was inclement and visibility was poor, making it difficult for the pilots to see the runway.

Kaohsiung Approach Control then instructed Flight 222 remain in a holding pattern with three other aircraft.

By the time the First Officer and the Captain called for a go-around, the aircraft had an altitude of only 72 feet (22 m), hence collision with the ground was inevitable.

The force of the impact severely damaged the aircraft, separating the outer right wing, vertical stabilizer, and empennage.

[14] TransAsia Airways general manager Chooi Yee-choong[c][15] apologized for the accident in a news conference held on 23 July.

[16] On 30 July, TransAsia Airways announced that they had made changes to their standard operating procedures for domestic flights, and would henceforth require that visibility at the arrival airport be 50% above the published minimum before a landing is attempted, and that the maximum holding time waiting for the weather to clear before having to divert be thirty minutes.

[18] An official investigation led by the Aviation Safety Council (ASC) of Taiwan was initiated.

Based on survivors' accounts, while approaching Penghu, the aircraft entered several instances of turbulence with thunder and lightning.

The intensity decreased sometime between 18:35 and 19:00, but as the second rainband passed the airport, the rain intensified, and visibility reduced rapidly.

Even though the flight crew did not formally brief or discuss the details in the approach chart, the first officer did remind the captain about several important things, including height of the aircraft and the distance requirements.

Instead of commencing a missed approach, both pilots spent about 13 seconds attempting to locate the runway.

During their search for the runway, the heavy thunderstorm rain activity intensified with a maximum rainfall of 1.8 millimetres (0.071 in) per minute.

[3]: 139–146 Knowing that several standard operating procedures were violated in Flight 222, especially descending below the minimum descent altitude, investigators then tried to identify if the problems came from TransAsia Airways itself.

Interviews with some of the pilots of TransAsia Airways found that routine violations from the standard operating procedure were normal.

In response to the previous investigation, the airline implemented several safety actions to eliminate standard operating procedure violations.

The safety actions implemented by TransAsia Airways were inadequate and ineffective, thus standard operating procedure violations continued as usual.

Their number was significantly higher compared to the peak summer season in 2013, in which only 27% of the pilots accrued over 270 flying hours.

The pilots protested on several occasions, but the management of TransAsia Airways apparently ignored the complaints.

Investigators found out that Lee was not intoxicated and was also not affected either by medication or by physical health problems.

[3]: 141–142 The ASC concluded that Captain Lee was indeed fatigued at the time of the accident, citing his degraded performance.

A steep trans-cockpit authority gradient may have meant that the First Officer did not challenge, intervene, or correct the Captain's mistakes.

[3]: 152–153 Interviews conducted by the AIC revealed that Captain Lee had good flying skills, and further stated that he, Captain Lee, had successfully landed in an airport previously in adverse weather condition because of his proficiency where some pilots might have initiated a missed approach.

[3]: 168  This might be one of the factors[citation needed] that explained why the captain intentionally flew below the minimum descent altitude and tried to visually locate the runway while maintaining 200 ft.[3]: 154–155 The final report was published in January 2016.

The crew continued the approach below the minimum descent altitude (MDA) when they were not visual with the runway environment contrary to standard operating procedures.

The investigation report identified a range of contributing and other safety factors relating to the flight crew of the aircraft, TransAsia's flight operations and safety management processes, the communication of weather information to the flight crew, coordination issues at civil/military joint-use airport, and the regulatory oversight of TransAsia by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA).The crash was featured in the 2nd episode of Season 18 of Mayday (Air Crash Investigation).