At least 15 people have been killed and a further 13 injured, including two infants, after a passenger plane clipped a road bridge and crashed into a river in Taiwan on Wednesday. The other 30 passengers remain unaccounted for as the rescue operation on the Keeling River in the capital city of Taipei continues.
Terrifying footage of the disaster, filmed by a passing motorist's dashboard camera, has emerged and shows the
ATR 72-600 turboprop domestic flight, reportedly with 58 people on board, plunging into the water only three minutes after taking off from an airport which was 5km away.
Hours after the crash,
TransAsia Airways CEO,
Chen Xinde extended a
"deep apology to the victims and our crew." He said 31 of the passengers aboard the flight were Chinese tourists, including three children. Twenty-two were from Taiwan, including one child.
The airline had sent the passenger manifest to authorities, and families were confirming the identities of the deceased, he said. Airline staff have been dispatched to hospitals to provide assistance to families and the injured, as well as the taxi driver and passenger who were also receiving treatment.
An official from the national fire agency told
AFP at least three people showed 'no life signs' when rescue crews first arrived at the accident site.
'Three people showed no heartbeat and other life signs when they were rescued,' Lin Kuan-cheng said.
Wu Jun-hong, a Taipei Fire Department official who was coordinating the rescue, said the missing people were still in the fuselage or had been pulled downriver.
'At the moment, things don't look too optimistic, Those in the front of the plane are likely to have lost their lives. Wu told reporters at the scene. '
Credits: CNN / Getty Images / AFP
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