[caption id="attachment_149629" align="alignright" width="173"] Rescue operations are underway to retrieve passengers from a TransAsia flight that crashed into a river in Taiwan.[/caption]
HONG KONG — A passenger plane crashed into a river in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, shortly after takeoff on Wednesday morning, a government agency said. At least 12 people were reported to have been killed, and rescue operations were underway to pull survivors from the water.
The plane, a TransAsia Airways twin turboprop, had just left Taipei Songshan Airport bound for Kinmen, an island near the mainland Chinese province of Fujian, Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration said. Fifty-three passengers and five crew members were aboard, the agency said.


At least 12 people were killed, with 16 others injured and 30 still unaccounted for, Taiwan’s state-owned Central News Agency reported Wednesday afternoon.


Dramatic images taken from car dashboard cameras and posted online showed the plane flying low over an elevated highway, its left wing clipping the road before it crashed into the river.


Local television showed the plane’s white and purple fuselage resting in the Keelung River in eastern Taipei, as rescuers in inflatable boats searched for survivors.


Shortly before the crash, a pilot indicated an engine problem, according to a recording of the plane’s communication with air traffic control posted to a monitoring site. “Mayday, mayday. Engine flameout,” the pilot said.


The crash was the second for the airline in just over six months, following a TransAsia Airways ATR-72 crash on July 23 that killed 48 people. The cause of that crash is still under investigation. The plane was attempting to land at Magong, in Taiwan’s Penghu Islands, as Typhoon Matmo brought heavy rain and strong winds to the region.


Taiwan once had a notoriously poor air safety record, but it has improved in recent years, with last year’s Penghu crash the first deadly accident in 12 years. The crash Wednesday seemed likely to raise further questions about the safety of privately owned TransAsia Airways. The carrier flies chiefly to Taiwan and mainland China, as well as destinations in Japan, Thailand, South Korea and Cambodia.


By The New York Times





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