Taiwan passenger jet hits bridge, plunges into river

A passenger plane with dozens of people on board plunged into the Keelung River in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, on Wednesday, killing at least 31 people.

Officials said 12 people were pulled out of the waters alive but that 15 remain missing.

Rescuers used a crane to hoist the wrecked plane from the shallow river as their search continued into the night. The death toll is expected to rise when crews are able search through previously submerged portions of the fuselage, which came to rest a few dozen yards from a riverbank.    

The TransAsia ATR 72-600 turboprop plane was on a domestic flight when it went down shortly after takeoff, hitting a bridge on its way into the Keelung. Dramatic amateur video captured the accident, showing that one of the jet's wings clipped a taxi on the bridge. Television pictures showed some damage to the bridge, with small pieces of the aircraft scattered along the road.

"I saw a taxi, probably just meters ahead of me, being hit by one wing of the plane. The plane was huge and really close to me. I'm still trembling," one witness told TVBS news channel.  

Television footage later showed some passengers wearing life jackets wading and swimming clear of the river. Emergency rescue officials in inflatable boats crowded around the partly submerged fuselage lying on its side in the river, trying to help those on board.

Taiwanese government authorities said the plane was carrying 58 passengers and crew members, including 31 tourists from mainland China.

A TransAsia media office declined comment on possible reasons for the crash, deferring to a news conference scheduled for later on Wednesday. Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration also would not discuss possible causes of the crash.

TransAsia's CEO Chen Xinde bowed at a news conference, carried live on Taiwanese television, as he offered a "deep apology" to the passengers and crew on board.

The flight took off from Wednesday from Taipei Songshan Airport at 10:53 a.m. and was headed to Taiwan's Kinmen Islands.

The last communication from one of the aircraft's pilots was "Mayday, mayday. Engine flameout," according to an air traffic control recording on LiveATC.net.

The crash is the latest in a string of fatal accidents to hit Asian carriers in the past 12 months. An AirAsia jet from the Indonesian city of Surabaya crashed on its way to Singapore on Dec. 28, killing all 162 people on board. Also last year, Malaysia Airlines' Flight 370 disappeared over the Indian Ocean, and Flight 17 was downed over Ukraine, with a combined loss of 539 lives.

TransAsia is Taiwan's third-largest carrier. One of its ATR 72-500 planes crashed while trying to land at Penghu Island last year, killing 48 of the 58 passengers and crew members on board.

Al Jazeera and wire services