So far civil aeronautics officials report that 15 people who were on the plane have been rescued from the river. The plane, TransAsia Flight GE235, had just taken off from the major airport in the Taiwanese capital city of Taipei, the Songshan Airport; it was a regular flight to Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen island.
The latest count had the death toll at 35 with 8 still missing.
Officials say that Air Traffic controllers lost contact with the plane shortly after its 10:55 a.m. take-off and it was then seen by witnesses to clip the bridge and plunge into the Keelung River. The fuselage is only approximately 12 meters from the shoreline and both passengers and rescuers could be seen standing upon it.
People are trapped inside the main body of the plane and rescuers are trying to get to them.
It’s unknown why the plane went down. Reports on local television said witnesses saw it heading in a direction that would have seen it miss the elevated bridge, and then it suddenly banked sharply to the right and hit it.
Rescuers were seen pulling people out of the fuselage with ropes. The rescued were being ferried to the shore in dinghies.
Latest reports said that at least 10 persons continued to be trapped inside the plane. Much of the plane is now submerged.
Last July another TransAsia plane crashed in Taiwan’s Penghu archipelago. That ATR-72 plane crashed while trying to land during a storm with low visibility. Forty-eight persons were killed and ten injured.
