16 of 31 killed in Taiwan plane crash from mainland

Sixteen of the 31 confirmed deaths in the Taiwan TransAsia Airways plane crash were Chinese mainland residents, according to the local disaster response authority.

Read more: Live: Plane with 53 passengers aboard crashes into river  

As of 9:45 a.m. Thursday, the fatal crash had left 31 dead, 15 with injuries, and 12 missing. All the missing passengers are tourists from the Chinese mainland. Three other mainland passengers were injured

The aircraft plunged into the Keelung River at 10:55 a.m. Wednesday after its wing clipped a taxi on an elevated freeway, ten minutes after takeoff. The taxi was carrying two passengers, a man and a woman.

Flight GE235 was heading 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.

The bodies of the captain and two co-pilots have been found, and the plane's two black boxes have been recovered.

Rescue work was hampered by poor visibility, due to the murky Keelung River. Several segments of the plane, including the cockpit, have been raised out of the water.

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

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 checks on the island's 22 ATR-72 aircraft before clearing them for flight.

Taipei Songshan Airport had canceled eight local flights, which are all plied by ATR-72 aircraft, by 8:00 a.m. Thursday, according to the airport's website.

Following the accident, TransAsia Airways announced on Thursday that passengers who wanted to cancel their bookings would have their commission fees waived.

This is not the first time that an ATR-72 aircraft has crashed in Taiwan. On July 23, 2014, TransAsia Airways flight GE222 crashed on Taiwan's Penghu Island, killing 48 people.

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

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