Around twenty people were missing Wednesday after a TransAsia Airways flight clipped its wing on a bridge shortly after takeoff from Taipei and then crashed into a nearby river, killing at least 23. There are 58 people on board, 53 passengers and 5 crews. The number of death was expected to rise.
Rescuers rushed to the scene of the crash, where a large party of the plane out of the Keelung River with one wing missing. Hours later, emergency personnel crowded around what remained of the plane. Cranes were brought to the river to lift up the wreckage. As night fell in Taiwan, 20 people were still missing. Wu Jun-Hong, a Taipei Fire Department official who was in charge the rescue, said “At the moment, things don’t look too optimistic.” Wu told reporters at the scene. “Those in the front of the plane have little chance of surviving.”
Dashcam footage from vehicles on a highway beside the river showed the plane banked sharply to its left after taking off, just missing apartment blocks, then its left wing clipping the side of the highway. A taxi on the bridge was hit as the plane went down, injuring the driver. Wednesday’s flight had taken off from Taipei’s downtown Sungshan Airport. It is reported that the ATR72-600 model is the TransAsia’s best plane and said the pilot had 4,900 hours of flying experience. The plane’s “black boxes” were recovered and TV footage showed them in apparently decent condition.
It was the second of TransAsia’s French-made ATR 72 to crash in the past year. Last July, a flight crashed while trying to land on the island of Penghu off Taiwan’s coast, killing 48 people and injuring another 10. Stormy weather was suspected as factors in that crash.
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