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Recovery team searches Keelung River

February 4, 2015

The search continues for missing passengers in Taiwan after an airplane crash killed at least 26. The plane hit a bridge after takeoff and crashed into Taipei's Keelung River.

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Taiwan
Image: Reuters/P. Chuang

At least 26 of 58 passengers - most from China - died when their plane hurtled into a Taipei river after hitting a bridge shortly after takeoff. Wednesday's flight departed at 11:53 a.m. (0353 UTC) from Taipei's downtown Sungshan Airport en route to the outlying Taiwanese-controlled Kinmen islands. TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 banked sharply on its side shortly after takeoff from the Taiwanese capital, clipped a highway bridge and then careened into the Keelung River.

Broadcasters have played a recording of the plane's final contact with the tower, in which the pilot called out "Mayday" three times. However, the recording offered no direct clues as to the plane's distress.

Rescuers pulled 15 injured survivors from the wreckage. With close to 20 passengers missing, they expect the death toll to rise.

'The newest model'

The ATR 72 propjet hit a taxi, injuring the driver and a passenger before heading into the river. Media reported that the pilot may have turned to follow the line of the river to avoid crashing into a high-rise residential area nearby, but Taiwan's aviation authority reported no evidence of that.

Flight GE235 became TransAsia's second French-Italian-built ATR 72 to crash in the past year. Another ATR 72 operated by the same Taipei-based airline crashed in the outlying Taiwan-controlled islands of Penghu at the end of a typhoon last July 23, killing 48. The reasons for the crash are still under investigation.

TransAsia director Peter Chen said the airport lost contact with the plane four minutes after takeoff. He said the cause of the accident crash remained unknown; he called the plane and the weather conditions suitable for flying.

"This aircraft in the accident was the newest model," he told a news conference on Wednesday. "It hadn't been used for even a year."

Thirty-one passengers came from China, Taiwan's tourism bureau reported. Kinmen's airport has become a common link between Taipei and China's Fujian province.

mkg/kms (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)