At least 23 dead in Taiwan plane crash caught on dramatic video

Desperate crew members shouted “Mayday! Mayday! Engine flameout!” as a TransAsia Airways turbo prop plane with 58 people aboard turned on its side in midair, clipped an elevated roadway and careened into a river on Wednesday shortly after takeoff from the island’s capital of Taipei. Rescue crews in rubber rafts frantically searched the wreckage, which was partially submerged in the Keelung River, for those aboard the plane. Latest reports indicate that at least 23 people have died in the crash, and 15 survivors were pulled out of the wreckage. Twenty people were still missing. Many of those on board were Chinese tourists. There has been no official comment on the cause of the crash, but the black boxes have been retrieved. Aviation officials said they had not released the cockpit recording, suggesting that it may have come from amateurs monitoring the radio.

At the moment, things don’t look too optimistic. Those in the front of the plane are likely to have lost their lives.

Wu Jun-hong, a Taipei Fire Department official

Dramatic amateur video footage showed the TransAsia ATR 72-600 turboprop plane hitting the road bridge as it banked side-long towards the water, leaving a trail of debris including a smashed taxi. Civil aviation officials said the flight took off at 10:53 a.m. and lost contact with controllers two minutes later.

World TransAsia