– Race against time –
Rescuers standing on large sections of broken wreckage tried to pull passengers out of the plane with ropes. Those who were rescued — including two children — were put in dinghies and taken to the shore.
Some were then loaded on stretchers.
Aviation officials said the plane crashed minutes after taking off Songshan airport, after losing contact with the control tower.
Eight rescue boats and more than 15 ambulances as well as around 100 soldiers were working on the rescue operation, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
The plane wreckage remained in the middle of the river, surrounded by dinghies.
Lin Chih-ming, head of Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration, said the ATR 72-600 was less than a year old and was last serviced just over a week ago.
The pilot had 14,000 flying hours and the co-pilot 4,000 hours, Lin said. READ: Pings detected in hunt for AirAsia black boxes.
In last July’s crash, the 48 people were killed when another domestic TransAsia flight crashed onto houses during a storm on the Taiwanese island of Penghu.
The ATR 72-500 turboprop plane deviated off course before plunging into the houses after an aborted landing during thunder and heavy rain as Typhoon Matmo pounded Taiwan at the time.
The flight’s pilots could not see the runway but had continued to descend anyway, Taiwanese authorities said in December. Two French nationals were among the dead.
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