Taiwan: TransAsia plane crashes leaving 23 dead and 20 missing people

GYI

A plane of the Taiwanese airline TransAsia, crashed in Taipei leaving so far 23 dead, 15 wounded and 20 missing people, while rescue teams try to help survivors, reported local government.

The aircraft with 58 people on board crashed into the Jilong River after making a sharp turn and hit a viaduct for unknown causes, just minutes after taking off from the Kinmen island, a few kilometers from the Chinese coast.

The incident occurred about 11:00 local time (0300 GMT) this Thursday, and the rescue operation is still ongoing, which involves more than 1,000 civilian and military personnel, along with numerous boats, rafts and helicopters.

Some 400 soldiers involved in the rescue operations, including divers, and the Sixth Army Corps have deployed two amphibious floating bridges M3 to cooperate in the work.

In the fuselage, buoyed by numerous rafts, 20 passengers are trapped, whom rescuers try to rescue in a laborious operation, because there is only one access door to the device, which is on the water.

The acting chief of the Fire Department of Taipei, Wu Chun-hung, said that the fuselage is seriously deformed due to the impact, hampering the rescue operation.