Thanks! (BTW, this Japanese おじさん across the aisle saw me reading my 文庫本 from across the aisle and asked about it. I told him it was just a detective story. He himself was reading the 古今和歌集!)
I used to fly CAL a lot. Once, on my to LAX, just off the coast (near Santa Barbara IIRC) the plane suddenly just dropped, like an elevator out of control, and then continued its descent as if nothing happened. When that happened again on my next flight, in almost the same place, I quit flying CAL.
Apparently, China Airlines did a *major* fleet replacement after that plane broke up mid-flight in 2002. (It was old and about to be retired to cargo-only use.) But that doesn't eliminate the possibility of crew error, of course.