Death toll in Taiwan plane crash rises to 31

2015-02-05 10:33 Xinhua Web Editor: Gu Liping

The wreckage of a TransAsia Airways turboprop ATR 72-600 aircraft is recovered from a river, in New Taipei City, February 4, 2015.[Photo: China News Service/Shao Hang]

At least 31 people died after a Taiwan TransAsia Airways plane crashed into the Keelung River in Taipei on Wednesday morning, ten minutes after takeoff.

The plane crash also left 15 injured, and 12 missing, according to updates of local civil aeronautics authority as of 6:00 a.m. Thursday.

Bodies of the captain and two co-pilots have been discovered, and the plane's two black boxes have been recovered.

Flight GE235 was headed for Kinmen from Taipei with 53 passengers on board, including 31 from the Chinese mainland, and five crew. Three of the mainland passengers are known to be children. According to latest information from Taiwan authorities, six of the 31 mainland passengers are confirmed dead and three others injured.

The rescue work had been suspended since 2:00 a.m., and had not resumed until around 6:30 a.m.. The head and several other segments of the plane have been raised out of the water, with the entire plane disintegrated.

The plane has been in service since April 2014 and was subject to a routine safety check last month, according to Taipei authorities.

The aircraft plunged into the river at 10:55 a.m. Wednesday after its wing clipped a taxi with a man and a woman inside on an elevated freeway.

The mainland passengers were on trips organized by two travel agencies from Xiamen City in Fujian Province, the Taiwan tourism authority confirmed.

Taiwan's civil aeronautics authority has decided to conduct safety check on the island's 22 ATR-72 aircraft before they are allowed to fly.

It was not the first time that the ATR-72 aircraft had crashed in Taiwan. On July 23, 2014, TransAsia Airways flight GE222, also an ATR-72 aircraft, crashed on Taiwan's Penghu islands, killing 48 people.

TransAsia Airways, founded in 1951, was Taiwan's first private airline, mainly focusing on short overseas flights.

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