The TransAsia plane as it crosses the freeway and clips the taxi en route to the Taipei river
Image: NBC
Reports coming in have indicated that a TransAsia aeroplane has crash landed into a river shortly after take off from a nearby airport in Taipei on Wednesday. This has been confirmed by authorities who have added that thirty one people have died in the latest accident to rock the Asian flight community. Twelve people were still missing at the time of going to press, the official word also confirmed.
In a video taken through a dash cam by a motorist who then posted it on Twitter, the plane is seen flying very low and almost turned on its side across the freeway, which is across a river. The motorist’s video continues to show the plane as it veers across the street with its wing scrapping across the ground. As it continues on its trajectory, the wing extensively clips a taxi that is driving on the freeway in front of the camera. The taxi immediately comes to an unceremonious stop and is later seen with extensive damage to the roof and front. Later reports on the taxi say that the driver of the taxi was taken into hospital with head injuries and concussion.
From taking off part of the bridge, the plane disappears from the sights of the dash cam and reports say that it continued in its quest to turn and landed upside down in the river. It appears from the reports that the emergency rescue people were quickly summoned to the scene, with the result that rescue efforts were immediately commenced. Of the fifty eight passengers on board, thirty one were confirmed dead by the end of the day on Wednesday while fifteen that included a child were rescued and hospitalized and another twelve were still missing. Rescuers were in the process of making frantic search efforts for the missing before they ran out of time.
This is the fourth plane to meet with disaster of this magnitude which is based in Asia in the last twelve months and it is the only one that is not directly related to the Malaysian Airlines. Last year, the MH 370 disappeared at sea and has not been seen since despite frantic search efforts which brought together rescuers from all over the world. Another Malasian plane was shot down over the Ukraine as its frosty relations with big brother Russia escalated. Another plane which was indirectly related to Malaysia also crashed into the sea late in 2014. These fatalities dominated a United Nations conference that was held recently.
