Dashcam captures shocking moment a Taiwan TransAsia plane clipped a bridge before crashing in to river
Wednesday, 4 February 2015
Dashcam captures shocking moment a Taiwan TransAsia plane clipped a bridge before crashing in to river
Footage recorded on a driver's dashcam shows a Taiwanese flight banking to the left and clipping the side of a bridge before crashing
Terrifying dashcam footage has captured the moment a Taiwanese flight with 58
people aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff, and careened into a
shallow river in the island's capital of Taipei and killing at least nine.
Parts of the wrecked fuselage of the turboprop ATR 72 jutted out of the
Keelung River just a couple dozen yards from the shore near the city's
downtown Sungshan airport. The main section of fuselage was on its side,
missing a wing.
Rescuers clustered around the plane in rubber boats more than two hours after
the crash, and could be seen pulling carry-on luggage from an open plane
door.
The country's Central News Agency said eight people were killed out of 26 that
had been pulled from the plane. The rescue was continuing.
CNA said the flight from Taipei to the outlying island of Kinmen lost contact
with flight controllers at 10:55 a.m. and the fuselage landed in the Keelung
River near the city's downtown Sungshan airport.
As many as 31 passengers were from mainland China, Taiwan's TVBS news
broadcaster said. Kinmen lies just off the Chinese coast, making it a
convenient way to return to the mainland after traveling to Taiwan.
Route taken by the plane before its crash
The plane also hit a taxi, the driver of which was injured, as it flew into the river, TVBS reported.
It was the second of TransAsia's French-made ATR 72 planes 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.
