TransAsia Plane Clips Bridge, Crashes Into Taipei River

An ATR-72 airplane belonging to TransAsia Airways crashed into the Keelung River in Taipei after hitting an elevated bridge less than 3 minutes after takeoff, killing at least 23. The plane had taken off from Taipei Songshan Airport and was headed to Kinmen Airport just off the coast of south-eastern China. More than half of the 58 passengers aboard TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 en route to Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands were from China. Video footage taken from passing cars showed the plane banking sharply to its left after taking off, its left wing clipping the side of the elevated highway hitting a taxi before crashing into the river.

Sebuah pesawat dgn 58 penumpang terhempas ke dlm sungai di New Taipei City selepas merempuh sebuah jejambat lebuhraya pic.twitter.com/nk9LHhUm3i

— Barisan Nasional (@barisanasional) February 4, 2015

TVBS: Taxi cab was clipped by #GE235 as it descended into river in Taipei. #Taiwan #TransAsia pic.twitter.com/YuvtTl9xUP

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 4, 2015

Rescuers on boats cut the plane open to rescue passengers trapped in the front section of the fuselage. 15 people survived the crash while 20 are missing. At the scene of the crash, a large portion of the wrecked fuselage could be seen lying with one wing missing.

It was the second of TransAsia’s ATR-72 airplane to crash in less than a year. In July 2014, a flight crashed while attempting to land on the island of Penghu off Taiwan’s coast, killing 48.