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12 dead as TransAsia Airways plane crashes into Taiwan river

At least 13 people were killed and up to 19 were missing after a Taiwanese TransAsia Airways plane with 58 passengers and crew on board crashed into a river shortly after taking off from a downtown Taipei airport today, according to a Reuters report.

As many as 28 people however appeared to have escaped miraculously from the crash after the plane lurched sickeningly between buildings, clipped an overpass with its port-side wing and crashed upside down in the shallow river. Rescuers have cut open the side of the fuselage and are trying to rescue several people still trapped inside. As of this moment, sixteen people have been rescued and sent to hospital, of which two of them were dead on arrival, said Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA).

Of the 58 passengers onboard TransAsia GE235, there were 51 adults, two children and five crew members. Taiwan’s CAA said the plane lost contact at 10.53am. Thirty-one mainland Chinese tourists were among those on board, Taiwan’s tourism bureau said.

TransAsia is Taiwan’s third-largest carrier. One of its ATR 72-500 planes crashed while trying to land at Penghu Island last July, killing 48 of the 58 passengers and crew on board. The crash is the latest in a string of mishaps to hit Asian carriers in the past 12 months.

Twitter user @Missxoxo168 has captured video of the plane with a dashboard camera mounted on his car. Watch it below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BIsUCQEv_8

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