A small passenger plane crashed into a river in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, on Wednesday morning, Taiwan’s state-owned Central News Agency reported, citing a local government official. At least nine people were killed, the agency said.
The plane, a TransAsia Airways twin turboprop, crashed shortly after takeoff from Taipei Songshan Airport on a flight bound for the Kinmen Islands, near the mainland Chinese province of Fujian, the agency reported.
Local news reports said 53 passengers were aboard, along with five crew members.
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. Rescue efforts were underway in the early afternoon, according to local television reports.
Local television showed the plane’s fuselage resting in the Keelung River in eastern Taipei.
The crash is 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.
Source: The New York Times
