Plane crashes in Taipei river; at least 12 dead

Melanie Eversley | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Raw: Plane Crashes into River in Taiwan A plane from Taiwan with 58 people aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and careened into a river Wednesday. Early reports say at least 8 people are known dead and at least two dozen were rescued. (Feb. 4)

A TransAsia Airways plane with 58 people aboard crashed into a river Wednesday when its wing clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff, killing at least 12.

Rescuers rushed to the scene of the crash, where a large portion of the wrecked fuselage jutted out of the shallow Keelung River with one wing missing.

The 12 victims were among the 27 people who have been pulled from the plane, Wu Jun-Hong, a Taipei Fire Department official who was coordinating the rescue, said. The 31 people unaccounted for are either still in the wreckage or were pulled downriver, he said.

"At the moment, things don't look too optimistic," Wu told reporters at the scene. "Those in the front of the plane are likely to have lost their lives."



A taxi on the bridge was hit as the plane went down, injuring the driver, Taiwan's TVBS news reported.

TransAsia has declined to comment on what may caused the crash, but said a news conference would be held later Wednesday.

The turboprop aircraft was headed from Taipei to the island of Kinmen, which lies just off the Chinese coast, when it went down. Of the 58 people aboard, 31 were passengers from mainland China, according to TVBS.

Civil aviation officials said the flight took off at 10:53 a.m. and lost contact with controllers two minutes later.

It was the second of TransAsia's French-made ATR 72 to crash in the past year. Last July, a flight crashed while attempting to land on the island of Penghu off Taiwan's coast, killing 48 people and injuring another 10. Stormy weather and low visibility were suspected as factors in that crash.

Contributing: The Associated Press