News Digest

At least nine dead, dozens missing as TransAsia plane crashes into Taipei river

At least nine people were killed and dozens unaccounted for after a Taiwanese TransAsia Airways plane with 58 passengers and crew on board crash-landed in a Taipei river on Wednesday, officials and domestic media said. Dramatic pictures taken by a motorist and posted on Twitter showed the plane cartwheeling over a motorway close to the airport soon after the turboprop ATR 72-600 aircraft took off. Television footage showed passengers wearing life jackets wading and swimming clear of the river. Emergency rescue officials in inflatable boats crowded around the partially submerged fuselage, lying on its side in the river, trying to help those on board. The civilian aeronautic authority said soon after the crash that two people had been killed. Taiwanese television later reported the death toll had risen to nine. The aeronautic authority reported 16 people had been rescued, meaning as many as 33 people were still missing.