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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Paul Farrell, Matthew Weaver, Michael Safi and Monica Tan

TransAsia flight crashes in Taiwan river – as it happened

At least 23 people are dead after the Taiwanese TransAsia GE235 plane with 58 passengers and crew on board crashed into a Taipei river shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, officials and domestic media said

Here’s Jonathan Kaiman’s latest account of the crash and the rescue efforts.

With that we’re going to bring this blog to a close.

23 dead says Taipei fire department

At least 23 people were killed in the crashed, Taipei’s fire department has confirmed, according to the Straits Times.

As at 6pm, 23 people have been confirmed dead - 14 of them died on the spot, and nine succumbed to their injuries before arriving at hospitals, according to fire department officials at the wreckage site. Twenty people remain missing, while 15 others are injured.

Authorities cannot ascertain if all the missing people are still inside the plane as eye witnesses claimed to have seen passengers being flung out of the plane as it plunged into the river.

Aviation expert David Learmount, operation and safety editor at Flight Global, says it is clear from the video footage that the plane was “fully stalled”.

In a blogpost on the possible causes of the crash he writes:

An aircraft stalls because it’s flying too slowly to generate sufficient lift from its wings and it starts to fall.

If an aeroplane is flying too slowly in level or descending flight it is normally because there is insufficient power to keep the aircraft’s speed up. The question for the investigators is why was there insufficient power?

Reports are coming in that the pilots made a Mayday call declaring an engine flame-out.

Both propellers were clearly turning, but that does not necessarily mean they were being supplied with sufficient power to fly safely.

If engine power is lost, the un-powered propeller can cause a lot of drag by windmilling, making the aircraft difficult to handle. Under those circumstances the crew would normally “feather” the propeller to cut the drag.

Screen grabs taken from video shows the TransAsia ATR 72-600 turboprop plane approaching and clipping an elevated motorway before crashing into the Keelung river outside Taiwan’s capital Taipei.
Screen grabs taken from video shows the TransAsia ATR 72-600 turboprop plane approaching and clipping an elevated motorway before crashing into the Keelung river outside Taiwan’s capital Taipei. Photograph: Tvbs Taiwan/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Rescue personnel help passengers as they wait to be transported to land from the wreckage of a TransAsia ATR 72-600 turboprop plane that crash-landed into the Keelung river outside Taiwan’s capital Taipei.
Rescue personnel help passengers as they wait to be transported to land from the wreckage of a TransAsia ATR 72-600 turboprop plane that crash-landed into the Keelung river outside Taiwan’s capital Taipei. Photograph: Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

As the scale of the accident is becoming clearer here’s a summary of what we know.

  • More the 20 people are reported to have died after TransAsia Airways flight GE235 crashed into Keelung River shortly after take off from Taipei Songshan airport. The were 53 passengers and 5 crew on board. A major rescue operation continues.
  • At least 15 people survived the crash, including a small child who was filmed being rescued. No survivors have been found for several hours.
  • Relatives of the 31 Chinese passengers on board the flight will travel to Taipei on Thursday. Some 16 of the Chinese passengers were with Teyung Group, and the remainder with Flying Tours. Flying Tours confirmed that a Chinese child was among those rescued.
  • Extraordinary footage has emerged of the plane partially crushing a taxi as it crashed into the river. A manager of the taxi company told the Guardian that the driver is in hospital with a head injury but is in a stable condition.
  • Flight recorders have been salvaged from the wreckage. The pilot is reported to have alerted air traffic control to an engine flameout, but the cause of the crash is unknown.
  • TransAsia has offered its deep apology for the crash as it faced questions abouts its safety record. Today’s crash is the carrier’s second fatal accident in seven months. Last year a TransAsia ATR 72-500 crashed while trying to land at Penghu Island, killing 48 of the 58 passengers and crew on board.

Updated

Hong Kong’s Apple Live is showing a live stream of the continuing rescue operation which is now taking place under flood lights.

A government official told the Telegraph that no survivors have been been found for nearly five hours. The official said the death toll has reached 22 people.

Updated

The Chinese relatives of passengers on board GE235 will travel to Taiwan on Thursday, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV. It puts the death toll at 21.

The death toll has increased to 23 people, according to an unconfirmed report by the South China Morning Post.

Fifteen were injured - at least nine seriously, the paper said.

The paper’s news editor, Chungyan Chow, says the remaining 36 passengers have been rescued.

Updated

Britain’s trade and cultural office in Taipei has expressed its condolences to the families of those killed and injured in the crash.

The number of those killed is unclear. China’s state broadcaster CCTV says 19 people were killed.

That figure was also given by Channel News Asia, but it has since revised it down to 16 people killed.

Taiwan regulators are likely to put more pressure on TransAsia Airways to review its maintenance and safety procedures after its second fatal accident in seven months, Reuters reports.

Industry data showed the crash of Flight GE235, in which at least 16 people were killed, was the fifth aircraft the airline has written off since 1995.


The crash comes just seven months after a TransAsia ATR 72-500 crashed while trying to land at Penghu Island, killing 48 of the 58 passengers and crew on board.


There have been two other fatal accidents and another two major incidents in the airline’s history, according to data from Flightglobal Ascend, an industry consultancy.


In December 2012, an ATR 72-200 freighter crashed en route to Macau from Taipei, killing both crew members. In 1995, an ATR 72-200 crashed into a hill near Songshan, killing all four crew.


In 2003, an Airbus A321 was written off after colliding with a vehicle that had strayed onto the runway while the plane was landing. A year later, an Airbus A320 was severely damaged when it over-ran the runway while landing at Songshan. There were no fatalities in either of those incidents.


Investigators into the latest disaster are likely to focus on cockpit procedures and maintenance issues at the airline, said Greg Waldron, Asia Managing Editor at Flightglobal.


“Coming so soon after July’s crash, the airline could come under intense scrutiny by regulators, not to mention the impact this will have on public perceptions of the carrier,” he added.

The Mirror described the taxi driver whose cab was clipped by the plane as the “luckiest man alive”.

One picture appears to show him sat hunched against the roadside making a mobile phone call, it points out.

“I fainted the moment it hit us,” The Telegraph quotes the driver telling Hong Kong’s Apple Daily.

Hong Shiqi, head of medicine at the hospital, said the driver, who was named only as Mr Zhou, had recounted feeling “very scared”. When he woke up, he felt severe pain in his eyes.

Mr Zhou has a history of heart problems and is being kept in the hospital for observation as well as physcological support for possible trauma.

Injured Chinese child confirmed

One of the passengers injured in the crash was a child from China, writes Jon Kaiman in Beijing.

The manager of the Taiwanese travel agency Flying Tourism told the Guardian that among 15 mainland Chinese tourists on the plane who were travelling with the agency, he had only confirmed one injured passenger – one of the two infants on board.

He had no information on the remaining 14 people. “We are only local guides,” said the man, who gave his name as Mr. Hsu. “It was a six day, five night travel package. The tour group arrived in Kaohsiung on 30 Jan and left Taipei this morning.”

The Independent Heather Saul picks out a still from video showing a small child being rescued.

Updated

TransAsia has issued a statement on its Facebook page which repeats the televised apology offered by its chief executive.

The statement says 13 people were killed in the crash. Those injured include a child, it says.

There continue to be conflicting reports about the number of people killed, injured and missing in the crash. Channel News Asia is now reporting that 19 people are confirmed dead, with 15 injured and further 24 “awaiting rescue”.

AP puts the death toll at 15.

In its last update Reuters said at least 11 people were killed, up to 19 are missing, and many as 28 people have survived.

An AFP graphic illustrates just how soon GE235 crashed after take off. The flight lasted three minutes.

Black boxes reported recovered

The flight recorders have been recovered from the wreckage of the plane, according to Channel News Asia.

They should help confirm whether the pilot reported an engine flameout just after take off, as reported earlier by aviation blogger Jason Rabinowitz.

Video from RT shows the damage done to the cbridge and a taxi before flight GE235 crashed into the river.

TransAsia CEO offers 'deep apology'

The chief executive of TransAsia, Chen Xinde, has publicly apologised for the crash.

Appearing at a televised news conference he bowed and offered his “deep apology” to the passengers and crew, Reuters reports.

To amplify Reported.ly’s caution about the fluctuating death toll, Chinese state TV is reporting that 13 people have been killed. Earlier AP said 15 people had died, citing officials and local media.

Updated

Reported.ly has a useful rundown of what we do and don’t know so far.

Here’s a summary:

Confirmed

  • The flight was was scheduled to go from Taipei to Kinman.
  • 58 people were on board including 3 pilots
  • The pilot flying the plane had nearly 5,000 hours of flight experience. His co-pilot had nearly 7,000 hours.
  • The plane was an ATR 72-600. It has about 70 seats and was less than a year old.
  • This is not the first crash of a TransAsia flight. In 2014, 48 people were killed when a flight from Kaohsiung, Taiwan attempted to land in the Penghu Islands. There were 54 on board.

Unconfirmed

  • The death toll is fluctuating as the rescue efforts continue
  • The origin of dramatic video footage appearing to show the plane crashing
  • The cause of the crash is unknown.
Search and rescue team members try to open a hole into a crashed TransAsia Airways passenger plane.
Search and rescue team members try to open a hole into a crashed TransAsia Airways passenger plane. Photograph: David Chang/EPA

Updated

The 31 passengers from China were travelling with two tour groups, writes Jon Kaiman in Beijing.

Some 16 passengers were with Teyung Group, and the remainder with Flying Tours.

Lin Liqing, manager of the Teyung Group, told the Guardian that she had just arrived in Taipei to help with the handling of the incident. “We are currently heading to the crash site and checking the passenger list with TransAsia Airways,” Lin said. She added that the passengers had been sent to eight local hospitals, and that she has not yet been able to visit them.


This post has been updated to correct the names of the travel companies, after an error by Chinese state media.

Updated

15 people reported killed

As expected the death toll is reported to have risen again. AP, citing local media and officials, says at least 15 people were killed.

The Taiwanese broadcaster CTITV is showing live footage of the rescue operation showing teams of rescuers in rubber dinghies around the wreckage.

Taiwan’s civil aviation authority said 15 people were killed out of 28 pulled from the fuselage and that 30 people were still missing, AP reported.

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, 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.”


Rescuers were pulling luggage from an open plane door to clear the fuselage, and Wu said they planned to build a pontoon bridge to facilitate those efforts.


The plane’s wing also hit a taxi, the driver of which was injured, on the freeway just before it crashed into the river, Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS reported.


Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence said it had sent 165 people and eight boats to the riverside rescue scene, joining fire department rescue crews.

Emergency personnel try to extract passengers from a commercial plane after it crashed in Taipei, Taiwan.
Emergency personnel try to extract passengers from a commercial plane after it crashed in Taipei, Taiwan. Photograph: Wally Santana/AP

Updated

The Chinese authorities have set up a hotline for families concerned that their relatives may have been on the plane, writes Monica Tan.

The number from mainline China is: 0592-7227777. Taiwan’s tourism bureau said 31 passengers were from China.

Updated

Summary

I’m handing over now to my colleague Matt Weaver in London. Here’s a summary of events as they stand so far:

  • A major search and rescue mission is currently underway following the crash of TransAsia Airways flight GE235 in Keelung River on Wednesday. The crash occurred shortly after the plane took off from Taiwan, and there are 53 passengers and 5 crew on board.
  • As the rescue operation continues there are reports of 12 deaths, 18 people with injuries and 31 people who are still unaccounted for. These figures are changing as the operation continues. At least 170 emergency staff have been deployed to assist in the rescue.
A man walks next to the edge of the motorway that the plane hit before crash landing in the river.
A man walks next to the edge of the motorway that the plane hit before crash landing in the river. Photograph: China Stringer Network/Reuters

Updated

My colleague Monica Tan has just been speaking with a spokesman from the Taiwanese Civil Aviation Authority. He has confirmed the names of the pilots on board, which have been circulating in Chinese news report over the last hour:

A representative from Taiwan’s civil aviation authority has confirmed to Guardian Australia the names of the two male pilots, Liao Jianzong and Liu Zizhong, as well as a third trainee pilot called Hong Binzhong. He said a full list of passengers on board the flight would be announced shortly at a press conference.

When asked if any foreign nationals were on board, he said the passengers were all from Taiwan and Mainland China and included two infants.

Dramatic images from the rescue are still emerging. This recent picture from a Channel NewsAsia correspondent shows dozens of emergency personnel working on the rescue operation.

Updated

China’s Xinhua News agency is reporting that there are now 12 people who are believed to have died from the TransAsia Airways crash. A number of other Chinese news outlets have reported this figure, which has risen from nine since the last official update.

Updated

Chinese news outlets have been circulating what they say are passenger manifests from the flight sourced from two tour groups. My colleague Monica Tan provided this further update:

The mainland Chinese newspaper People’s Daily has published on its Weibo account a list of mainland Chinese passengers who are believed to have been on the site. The 31 passengers were part of two tour groups, called Deyun Group (Xiamen Airlines International Travel) and Flying Mission (Xiamen Travel Group International).

Update: It has since emerged that the list linked to by the People’s Daily was from last year. A link to the list been removed.

Updated

Flightradar24 has provided some further information about TransAsia Airways flight GE235 and its anticipated flight route.

Rescuers and soldiers remove airplane parts from the river .
Rescuers and soldiers remove airplane parts from the river . Photograph: Pichi Chuang/Reuters

Updated

Most of the reports from the TransAsia crash are still emerging from press conferences with Taiwanese media. My colleague Monica Tan has been following events as they continue, and has translated another update from Taiwan’s chief firefighter:

Taiwan
Taiwan’s chief firefighter updates local media on the TransAsia Airways crash. Photograph: CTITV News

Wu Jun Hong, the city’s chief firefighter, has just described the rescue effort for reporters at the scene of the accident. Wu says the plane is 27m long and a crane is being used to retrieve the head of the plane from the water.

Summary

Events are continuing to unfold rapidly following the crash of a TransAsia flight in Taiwan’s Keelung River. Here’s a summary of events as they stand so far:

  • TransAsia Airways flight GE235 crashed in Keeling River on Wednesday shortly after taking off from Taiwan. The Taiwanese Central Disaster Response Centre said there were 53 passengers and five crew members on board. Extraordinary footage has emerged of the plane glancing across buildings and cars shortly before it crashed into the river.
  • An urgent rescue mission is underway by Taiwanese emergency personnel. The Taiwanese Civil Aviation Authority said in a press conference that there were nine confirmed deaths, 18 people were injuries, and 31 people who were unaccounted for. This report is expected to change as the rescue mission continues.
  • At least 170 emergency staff have been deployed - including ambulances, fire engines and watercraft - to assist in the rescue operation.

Updated

The Taiwanese Central Disaster Response Centre has issued a release on the TransAsia crash. My colleague Monica Tan has provided this translation of the release, which confirms that there have been a number of deaths and injuries

The plane lost contact at 10.53am on and was found in Keelung river in Taipei. The ministry of transportation contacted the disaster response centre 20 minutes later.

Confirmed on the flight are 53 passengers and five crew members, totalling 58 people. Taipei city rescue teams are in operation, having rescued 16 people who were admitted to a nearby hospital, with two announced dead on arrival.

Several fire engines, ambulances, water craft and almost 170 rescue staff have been dispatched.

The release appears to have been posted about an hour ago, and there have been reports since then in Taiwanese media of at least nine deaths from the crash.

Updated

Local Taiwanese TV station CTITV currently has a live feed of their news program available. The station is providing ongoing updates of events, which are unfolding rapidly as the rescue and recovery operation continues.

My colleague Monica Tan has been translating some of the Taiwanese media reports from the TransAsia airways press conference earlier today. Here’s what the China Times has reported from the announcement:

A representative from the Civil Aviation Authority Lin Zhi Ming said at a press conference held at 12.30pm two people were found dead on arrival and that the aircraft was less than a year old, and serviced on 26 January. Weather conditions were good and the pilot had 14,000 hours of flying hours and the co-pilot 4,000 hours.

The report said that there were 27 people rescued, 18 people injured, 9 dead and 31 unaccounted for.

Reported.ly has also posted this image of the layout of an ATR 72-600, which is the model of flight GE235.

Updated

What do we know about TransAsia Airways?

Some readers have been asking for more details about TransAsia Airways and where it operates. The airline is based in Taiwan and has been operating as a commercial carrier since 1951. It flies generally local services but has expanded to fly more international routes recently. The company is currently owned by Golden Development & Construction Co Ltd and is listed on the Taiwan stock exchange. In January 2014 it also announced plans to launch a low-cost airline.

In July 2014 a crash occurred that left 48 people dead and 10 injured after a TransAsia plane crash-landed while trying to land at a Taiwanese airport after a typhoon.

Updated

Here is the dashcam footages that captures the moment when flight GE235 crashed shortly after take-off:

Extraordinary images of a yellow taxi that was partially crushed by the plane have been circulating on news sites. My colleague Jon Kaiman has spoken to the company that owns the taxi, which provided this updates:

An assistant to Crown Taxi company’s general manager, who identified himself as Mr Yang, told the Guardian: “The driver has been sent to a local hospital. He has head injury and concussion, but all of his vital signs are stable.” Yang added that the company planned to raise the topic of compensation with TransAsia Airways at a later date.

Taiwanese TV stations continue to broadcast live footage of rescue workers in life vests and yellow helmets surrounding the plane’s partially submerged fuselage in inflatable rafts.

The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, according to local media reports.

Updated

Taiwanese media now reporting that eight people have died in this crash, far higher than initial estimates.

Images are emerging of the rescue operation still underway.

Rescuers pull a passenger out of the TransAsia Airways plane which crash landed in a river, in New Taipei City, February 4, 2015. At least two people killed after a TransAsia Airways plane carrying 58 people crash landed in Taipei River, government said. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang
Rescuers pull a passenger out of the TransAsia Airways plane which crash landed in a river, in New Taipei City, February 4, 2015. At least two people killed after a TransAsia Airways plane carrying 58 people crash landed in Taipei River, government said. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang Photograph: PICHI CHUANG/REUTERS
Rescuers carry out a rescue operation after a TransAsia Airways plane crash landed in a river, in New Taipei City, February 4, 2015. At least two people were killed when a Taiwanese TransAsia plane carrying 58 people crashed landed in a Taipei river on Wednesday, the Taiwan government said. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang
Rescuers carry out a rescue operation after a TransAsia Airways plane crash landed in a river, in New Taipei City, February 4, 2015. At least two people were killed when a Taiwanese TransAsia plane carrying 58 people crashed landed in a Taipei river on Wednesday, the Taiwan government said. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang Photograph: PICHI CHUANG/REUTERS

Updated

Now Chinese state media has raised the death count to three, while Taiwan’s tourism bureau is reporting that 31 of the people onboard were mainland Chinese tourists, Jonathan Kaiman says.

About 16 people have been rescued, civil aviation authorities told a media briefing.

Updated

Two confirmed dead and three reported missing

Taiwanese broadcasters are reporting that two people onboard the flight have died, and that three have not been accounted for, my colleague Jonathan Kaiman says.

Updated

We’re getting clashing reports about the number of people aboard this flight, but it appears there were 53 passengers and 5 crew aboard when the plane clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and crashed into the Keelung river in Taipei.

Taiwan’s Central News Agency said 10 people are awaiting rescue after the incident. It did not immediately clarify whether the remaining passengers had already been rescued. Taiwanese media posted pictures of the plane in the water about 100 meters from the shore of Keelung River.

CNA said the flight from Taipei to the outlying island of Kinmen lost contact with flight controllers at about 10:55 a.m. and the fuselage landed in the Keelung River near the city’s downtown Sungshan airport.

A TransAsia Airways plane has crash-landed in a Taipei river, according to reports.

Some reports said the plane was an ATR-72, a French-built twin-engined propellor aircraft, and had 58 people on board. It came down in the Keelung river, Taiwan’s aviation council was quoted as saying.

The video footage of the plane hitting the bridge

Widely shared pictures have been posted to Twitter that appear to show the plane falling rapidly and clipping the road before it disappears from the screen.

We’ll be posting updates as they happen.

Updated

Here’s footage of the plane going down, captured by one of Taipei’s ubiquitous dash cams.

Flightradar24 has this image of the TransAsia aircraft that’s just crashed in Taipei.

AFP reports that 10 people have been rescued but dozens remain trapped inside, according to local television.

The TransAsia ATR 72-600 turboprop plane was on a domestic flight when it hit a road bridge before ploughing into the river, the TV reports said. Rescuers were trying to reach the trapped passengers, they said.

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