A TransAsia Airways ATR 72-600 aircraft crashed into a river near Taipei, Taiwan, killing at least 19 people.
On its way to Kinmen islands towards the southeastern city of Xiamen, flight GE 235 was carrying 58 passengers and crew onboard.
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The aircraft hit an elevated roadway and crashed upside down into the river, three minutes after takeoff from Taipei’s Songshan airport.
According to Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Authority, 15 passengers were injured and 24 are missing, reported Reuters. Rescue efforts are underway to recover passengers trapped in the fuselage.
Taipei fire department assistant director Wu Jun-Hong was quoted by BBC saying: "We’re asking the public works department for heavy cranes to be deployed in the hope that the body of the plane can be lifted up.
"At the moment, we think a lot of the trapped people are in the head of the plane."
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By GlobalDataAn air traffic control recording reportedly showed last communication from one of the pilots, who claimed there had been an engine flameout.
Flight data recorders of the ATR 72-600 aircraft have been recovered. The incident is the second for TransAsia Airways within a year. In July 2014, TransAsia Airways’ ATR 72-500 crash landed at Penghu Island, killing 48 people onboard.
In December 2014, the Singapore-bound AirAsia jet crashed into Java Sea killing all people onboard.
Over the last year, Asian carriers have experienced a series of incidents, including the Malaysia Airlines MH370 disappearance in the Indian Ocean, while MH17 was shot down over Ukraine.
