TAIPE I – The death toll of Wednesday’s TransAsia Airways plane crash in Taiwan has risen to 32 with 11 people still unaccounted for as search operations continue, the Island’s
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]Response Authority said on Thursday.
An additional 15 people on board the plane were injured when the ATR-72 aircraft crashed in the Keelung River at 10:56 a.m. on Wednesday after its wing clipped a taxi on an elevated freeway 10 minutes following take-off.
However, the driver and a passenger of the taxi were also injured.
According to Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, 18 of the dead were from the Chinese mainland.
In total, 31 passengers from the Chinese mainland, including three children were on board Flight GE235 which was heading for Kinmen from Taipei.
Taiwan tourism authority confirmed that the mainland passengers were on trips organised by two travel agencies from Xiamen City in Fujian Province.
Rescuers operating underwater and in rafts and helicopters are on Thursday scouring the crash site and along the Keelung River as well as its banks.
The cockpit and tail of the plane have been hoisted out of the water, while some segments of the fuselage remain submerged.
The Taiwan Aviation Safety Council said it has invited accident investigators from the Chinese mainland to take part in the accident investigation.
Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said that the mainland civil aviation authorities would dispatch investigators.
Meanwhile investigators from France, producer of the aircraft, and from Canada, producer of the engine, have also been invited.
However, the updated date of the meeting was not revealed immediately. (Xinhua/NAN)
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