Death toll reaches 23, with 15 passengers rescued alive, according to Taiwan state media
At least 23 people were killed after a Taiwanese commercial flight with 53 passengers aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and crashed into a river in the island’s capital of Taipei on Wednesday morning.
Fifteen passengers so far were rescued alive, according to Taiwan state media
Many passengers were trapped in the submerged wreckage of the plane, an official said. The death toll in the TransAsia Airways flight was expected to rise as rescue crews cleared the mostly sunken fuselage in the Keelung River a couple dozen meters (yards) from the shore.
Teams of rescuers in rubber rafts clustered around the wreckage.
A video posted to YouTube of a Taiwanese commercial flight that clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and crashed into a river in the island's capital of Taipei on Wednesday morning.
Taiwanese media posted pictures of the plane in the water several dozen meters from the shore in the Keelung River.
CNA said the flight from Taipei to the outlying island of Kinmen lost contact with flight controllers at 10.55am and the fuselage landed in the Keelung River near the city’s downtown Sungshan airport.
The plane was identified as a French-made twin-engine turboprop ATR 72 with a two-pilot air crew.
The plane’s fuselage was seen half-submerged in the shallow river, with passengers and rescuers standing on the hull and swimming in the water.
The accident comes just months after a TransAsia ATR-72 crashed while attempting to land on the island of Penghu off Taiwan’s coast, killing 48 people and injuring another 10. Stormy weather and low visibility were suspected as factors in that crash last July.
