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TransAsia aircraft crashes in Taiwan; 31 dead

Second fatal crash for the airline in seven months

Taiwan TransAsia crash

A TransAsia flight with 58 persons on board crashed into the Keelung river in Taipei early on Wednesday morning, killing at least 31 persons on board. Rescue operations were underway to extricate passengers trapped inside the aircraft.

Reports suggest the twin-propeller ATR-72 aircraft lost control shortly after take-off from Taipei’s Songshan airport, banked sharply and clipped a bridge before plunging into the river. Local news agencies claim dashboard-mounted cameras on cars captured the moment of the crash. The Wall Street Journal reports eyewitness accounts claiming two bodies fell from the sky shortly before the crash. 

A second video shows the aircraft clipping a taxi on its way down.


Pictures put out by local media show the taxi that took the hit.

TransAsia, one of Taiwan’s oldest airlines operates domestic as well as international flights. Wednesday’s incident is the second tragedy for the airline in less than eight months. In July 2014, 51 people died when TransAsia flight GE222 crash-landed at Taiwan’s Penghu airport. The aircraft in question was also an ATR-72.