13 people die after flight crashes into river
A TransAsia plane with 58 people on board clipped a bridge shortly after take-off and crashed into a river in northern Taiwan on Wednesday morning, killing at least 13 people.
The ATR 72-600 propeller aircraft crashed at 10.56am in Taipei, shortly after it took off from the city's Songshan airport, which servesdomestic flights. A statement from TransAsia on Wednesday afternoon said 28 people were known to be injured and were being treated in local hospitals. They include nine people who had suffered severe injuries, the statement said.
That leaves at least 17 people unaccounted for. An earlier news release by the Taipei government had said 30 people were missing and twopassengers travelling in a taxi hit by the plane as its left wing clipped the highway bridge were also injured.
A total of 53 passengers - including four children - and five crew members were on board the plane when it hit an elevated road near the Nangang district in Taipei before crashing into the water, TransAsia
said.
Thirty-one of the passengers were mainland Chinese tourists. Many were from the city of Xiamen.
Watch: The moment a TransAsia plane hits bridge and crashes in Taiwan
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fWhYJNZt08
The TransAsia statement said the aircraft, a new-model twin-engine turboprop regional airliner made by the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR, was only delivered to the airline in April 2014 and had been in service for less than a year. The latest scheduled maintenance for the plane was completed on January 26, it said.
It was the second TransAsia aircraft to crash in the past year.
Forty-eight people died after one of the carrier's ATR-72 planes crashed last July on the island of Penghu off the coast of Taiwan.
Television news footage on Wednesday morning showed the aircraft half-submerged in the Keelung River, its fuselage crumpled and tail broken.
A tweet sent out by a Taiwanese Twitter user purportedly showed the dramatic moment, captured by the dashboard camera of an oncoming car, when the plane hit the highway bridge.
The photo sequence shows the aircraft losing control and tilting fully to its side, its left wing breaking as it hits the bridge then plummeting into the shallow river.
The aircraft's wing appears to strike the roof of a taxi travelling on the road.
The plane was bound for Kinmen, a Taiwanese defence outpost just off Xiamen in southeastern China, aviation officials said.
source: At least 13 killed after aircraft carrying 58 hits bridge in Taiwan and crashes into river | South China Morning Post
A TransAsia plane with 58 people on board clipped a bridge shortly after take-off and crashed into a river in northern Taiwan on Wednesday morning, killing at least 13 people.
The ATR 72-600 propeller aircraft crashed at 10.56am in Taipei, shortly after it took off from the city's Songshan airport, which servesdomestic flights. A statement from TransAsia on Wednesday afternoon said 28 people were known to be injured and were being treated in local hospitals. They include nine people who had suffered severe injuries, the statement said.
That leaves at least 17 people unaccounted for. An earlier news release by the Taipei government had said 30 people were missing and twopassengers travelling in a taxi hit by the plane as its left wing clipped the highway bridge were also injured.
A total of 53 passengers - including four children - and five crew members were on board the plane when it hit an elevated road near the Nangang district in Taipei before crashing into the water, TransAsia
said.
Thirty-one of the passengers were mainland Chinese tourists. Many were from the city of Xiamen.
Watch: The moment a TransAsia plane hits bridge and crashes in Taiwan
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fWhYJNZt08
The TransAsia statement said the aircraft, a new-model twin-engine turboprop regional airliner made by the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR, was only delivered to the airline in April 2014 and had been in service for less than a year. The latest scheduled maintenance for the plane was completed on January 26, it said.
It was the second TransAsia aircraft to crash in the past year.
Forty-eight people died after one of the carrier's ATR-72 planes crashed last July on the island of Penghu off the coast of Taiwan.
Television news footage on Wednesday morning showed the aircraft half-submerged in the Keelung River, its fuselage crumpled and tail broken.
A tweet sent out by a Taiwanese Twitter user purportedly showed the dramatic moment, captured by the dashboard camera of an oncoming car, when the plane hit the highway bridge.
The photo sequence shows the aircraft losing control and tilting fully to its side, its left wing breaking as it hits the bridge then plummeting into the shallow river.
The aircraft's wing appears to strike the roof of a taxi travelling on the road.
The plane was bound for Kinmen, a Taiwanese defence outpost just off Xiamen in southeastern China, aviation officials said.
source: At least 13 killed after aircraft carrying 58 hits bridge in Taiwan and crashes into river | South China Morning Post
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