Crashed TransAsia plane’s fuselage hoisted from Keelung river in Taipei
Flight 235 with 58 people on board — most of them from China — banked sharply on its side shortly after takeoff from Taipei, clipped a highway bridge, and then careened into the Keelung River.
Rescuers in rubber rafts pulled 15 people alive from the wreckage in daylight. After dark, they brought in the crane, and the death toll was expected to rise once crews were able to search through submerged portions of the fuselage, which came to rest a few dozen metres from the shore.
Dramatic video clips apparently taken from cars were posted online and aired by broadcasters, showing the ATR 72 propjet as it pivoted onto its side while zooming toward the bridge. In one of them, the plane rapidly fills the frame as its now-vertical wing scrapes over the road, hitting a vehicle before heading into the river.
Speculation cited in local media said the crew may have turned sharply to follow the line of the river to avoid crashing into a high-rise residential area, but Taiwan’s aviation authority said it had no evidence of that.
Taiwanese broadcasters repeatedly played a recording of the plane’s final contact with the control tower in which the crew called out “mayday” three times. The recording offered no direct clues as to why the plane was in distress.
It was the airline’s second French-Italian-built ATR 72 to crash in the past year.
Yesterday’s flight had taken off at 11.53am from Taipei’s Sungshan Airport en route to Kinmen islands. The crew issued the mayday call shortly after takeoff, Taiwanese civil aviation authorities said.
TransAsia director Peter Chen said contact with the jet was lost four minutes after takeoff. He said the accident’s cause was unknown.
