Beijing: Taiwanese investigators have been dispatched to the outlying island of Penghu to determine the cause of a domestic passenger jet crash which killed at least 48 people on Wednesday.
The TransAsia Airways Flight 222 crash-landed in inclement weather into a village barely three kilometres shy from the airport at its intended destination, Makong Island, in the strait that separates Taiwan from mainland China.
Fifty-eight passengers and crew were on board the 70-seat twin-engine turboprop ATR 72 plane; all were Taiwanese except for two French nationals.
Distressing scenes played out as distraught relatives seeking information on their loved ones rushed to hospitals and Kaohsiung Airport, where the plane was delayed for nearly two hours because of bad weather before taking off – the short flight was only scheduled to take 35 minutes.
"It was thunderstorm conditions during the crash," said Hsi Wen-guang, a spokesman for the local fire department.
Local television showed one woman, Hsu Yu-jie, a 34-year-old employee of the Penghu County accounting and statistics department, collapsing in tears as airline personnel tried to console her. “My daughter,” she said, sobbing.The crash occurred during the plane’s second attempt at landing after pilots aborted the first landing, reportedly due to poor visibility.
Taiwan had shut its financial markets and schools in the preceding two days as the island was hit by Typhoon Matmo. But it had passed the island and was heading into China, downgraded from typhoon to tropical storm at the time of the crash.
Tributes flowed for the victims of the crash, which included an army captain, and a family of six from Makong, including newlywed Chan Yun-ching, who had been married just 10 days.
“Chan’s daughter only got married recently and they’ve suffered such misfortune, it’s terribly sad,” the mayor of Makong, Su Kun-hsiung, told Taiwanese newspaper UDN.
Chang Lan-hsin, a professor of foreign languages at the National Kaohsiung University, choked back tears as he told reporters that his student Chan Ya-ni had only last year beaten cancer into remission, and had posted “it’s good to be alive” on Facebook before her flight.
Villagers at the site of the crash described seeing the plane “plummet” from the sky, crashing into houses below and erupting into flames. As many as five people at ground level were injured by the crash.
“I heard a huge crash,” said one villager, named as Mr Wang, on Taiwan’s TVBS. “At first I thought it was thunder but then I smelt gas. Then I saw the fire outside and there were passengers covered in blood crawling from the plane.”
The Civil Aeronautics Administration said earlier in the day that weather conditions at the time did not exceed international regulations for landing. Visibility was 1600 metres with cloud cover as low as 600 metres.
It is unclear at the moment whether the plane crash was a result of inclement weather or human error, accord to the administration's head, Wang Hsing-chung.
Television networks aired footage of TransAsia's president, Chooi Yee-choong, bowing in apology. "We express our deepest apologies to everyone for this unfortunate event."
TransAsia said the pilot, Lee Yi-liang, 60, had a flight operation experience of 22 years, while that of co-pilot Chiang Kuan-hsing, 39, was 2.5 years.
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese President Xi Jinping also expressed condolences and “deep grief”, in separate statements.
With Sanghee Liu and agencies
Philip Wen
A domestic TransAsia Airways plane has crashed, killing at least 47 people, after aborting an earlier attempt to land in stormy weather inTaiwan.
The plane, a 70-seat twin-engine turboprop ATR 72, crashed in a village on the Penghu islands, off the west coast of Taiwan with 54 passengers and four crew on board, transportation minister Yeh Kuang-shih told reporters on Wednesday.
Mr Yeh said there were 11 survivors on the flight; earlier reports citing the Penghu fire department had said as many as 51 people had died, with only seven survivors.
The pilot was identified by Taiwanese media as Lee Yi-liang, 60, and his co-pilot as Chiang Kuan-Hsing, 39.
No cause for the crash has yet been confirmed, though it happened as Typhoon Matmo was moving away from Taiwan and toward mainland China.
The flight, coded GE222, was due to take off from Kaohsiung at 4pm local time but was delayed nearly two hours due to inclement weather.
As the plane was preparing to land at Magong airport in heavy rain, it was forced to pull up because of poor visibility, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.
On the second attempt, the plane crashed in the village of Xixi, a mere 3 kilometres away from the airport runway, CNA reported, citing the Penghu fire department. The plane lost contact with air traffic control at 7.06pm local time, during the second attempt to land the plane, said Jean Shen, director-general of the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
Weather conditions at the airport at the time were suitable for landing, with visibility of 1,600 meters, she said, adding that a Far Eastern Air Transport flight and a UNI Air plane had landed safely just before the TransAsia flight.
Eyewitnesses cited in local media reports described the plane plummeting fomr the sky and huge flames erupting from the wreckage. Two houses at the crash site were “sawn in half” by the plane, reports said.
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou expressed grief and urged for prompt investigation.
The airline’s general manager also made a tearful apology on live television while pledging the airline’s best efforts in handling the tragedy, as distraught family members converged at Xiaogang Airport in Kaohsiung.
TransAsia Airways is a Taiwan-based airline with a fleet of around 23 Airbus and ATR aircraft, flying chiefly on domestic routes, but with some flights to Japan, Thailand and Cambodia among its Asian destinations. Apart from Wednesday's event, Taiwan's aviation safety council says Transasia has had a total of 8 incidents since 2002, including 6 involving the ATR 72.
Philip Wen
A domestic TransAsia Airways plane has crashed, killing at least 47 people, after aborting an earlier attempt to land in stormy weather inTaiwan.
The plane, a 70-seat twin-engine turboprop ATR 72, crashed in a village on the Penghu islands, off the west coast of Taiwan with 54 passengers and four crew on board, transportation minister Yeh Kuang-shih told reporters on Wednesday.
Mr Yeh said there were 11 survivors on the flight; earlier reports citing the Penghu fire department had said as many as 51 people had died, with only seven survivors.
The pilot was identified by Taiwanese media as Lee Yi-liang, 60, and his co-pilot as Chiang Kuan-Hsing, 39.
No cause for the crash has yet been confirmed, though it happened as Typhoon Matmo was moving away from Taiwan and toward mainland China.
The flight, coded GE222, was due to take off from Kaohsiung at 4pm local time but was delayed nearly two hours due to inclement weather.
As the plane was preparing to land at Magong airport in heavy rain, it was forced to pull up because of poor visibility, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.
On the second attempt, the plane crashed in the village of Xixi, a mere 3 kilometres away from the airport runway, CNA reported, citing the Penghu fire department. The plane lost contact with air traffic control at 7.06pm local time, during the second attempt to land the plane, said Jean Shen, director-general of the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
Weather conditions at the airport at the time were suitable for landing, with visibility of 1,600 meters, she said, adding that a Far Eastern Air Transport flight and a UNI Air plane had landed safely just before the TransAsia flight.
Eyewitnesses cited in local media reports described the plane plummeting fomr the sky and huge flames erupting from the wreckage. Two houses at the crash site were “sawn in half” by the plane, reports said.
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou expressed grief and urged for prompt investigation.
The airline’s general manager also made a tearful apology on live television while pledging the airline’s best efforts in handling the tragedy, as distraught family members converged at Xiaogang Airport in Kaohsiung.
TransAsia Airways is a Taiwan-based airline with a fleet of around 23 Airbus and ATR aircraft, flying chiefly on domestic routes, but with some flights to Japan, Thailand and Cambodia among its Asian destinations. Apart from Wednesday's event, Taiwan's aviation safety council says Transasia has had a total of 8 incidents since 2002, including 6 involving the ATR 72.