A Trans Asia Airways flight in Taiwan carrying
58 passengers and crew careened
past buildings clipped a highway and crashed into a shallow stream, killing at
least 23 people.
Trans Asia GE 235, a domestic
flight from Taipei to Kinmen – a small
archipelago near mainland China
– crashed at 10.56am local time, according to Taiwan
At the moment, things don’t look too
optimistic,” said Wu Jun-hong, a Taipei Fire Department official who was
coordinating the rescue, according to
the Associated Press. “Those in the front of the plane are likely to
have lost their lives.”
The driver of the clipped taxi
cab “has been sent to a local hospital”, an assistant to the Crown Taxi
Company’s general manager who identified himself as Mr Yang told the Guardian.
“He has head injury and
concussion, but all of his vital
signs are stable.” Yang added that the company planned to raise the
topic of compensation with Trans Asia Airways at a later date.
he last communication from one of the
aircraft’s pilots was “Mayday
Mayday engine flameout”, according to an air traffic control recording on liveatc.net.
A flameout occurs when the
fuel supply to the engine is interrupted or when there is faulty combustion,
resulting in an engine failure.
The flight’s black box has
been recovered, according to local media.
“Weather conditions were good
and the pilot had 14,000 hours of flying hours and the co-pilot 4,000 hours,”
Lin Zhiming, a representative from Taiwan
Among the passengers
were 31 mainland Chinese tourists, travelling with two local travel agencies:
Teyung Group, and Flying Tours. Lin Liqing, manager of the Teyung Group, said that she had
just arrived in Taipei
“We are currently heading to the crash
site and checking the passenger list with Trans Asia Airways,” Lin said. She
added that the passengers had been sent to eight local hospitals, and that she
had not yet been able to visit them.
The manager of Flying Tours said that
among 15 mainland Chinese tourists on the plane who were travelling with the agency,
he had only confirmed one injured passenger – one of the two infants on board.
He had no information on the remaining 14 people.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Taiwanese
broadcaster TVBS showed rescuers pulling a toddler alive from the wreckage and
rushing him or her to safety.
The chief executive of Trans Asia, Chen
Xinde, has publicly apologized for the crash.
Wednesday’s crash is the second by a
Trans Asia flight within the past six months — in July 2014, Trans Asia flight
ATR-72 crashed while
attempting to land in the Penghu Islands soon after a typhoon,
killing 48 people. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Key words
careen：傾斜
aviation：航空
vital sign：生命跡象
Mayday：「快來幫幫我」求救訊號
What: A Trans Asia Airways flight crashed in
Where:
When: not given
Why: engine flameout
How: A Trans Asia Airways flight careened past buildings clipped a
highway and crashed into a shallow stream
