Taiwan Plane Tumbles Into River, Killing 26
Officials in Taiwan worked to lift a TransAsia Airways propjet out of the Keelung River in Taipei Wednesday after the plane clipped its wing on a freeway overpass and cartwheeled into the river, killing 26.
Footage taken by motorists traveling on an elevated highway shows the plane's dramatic crash. The plane had taken off from Taipei's main airport only minutes before the pilot of the plane reportedly said "mayday" to ground control.
Dashcam footage shows the plane's wings becoming vertical as the aircraft's left wing clips the side of the highway and tumbles into the Keelung River below. Rescue teams have reportedly discovered 15 survivors, with seventeen people remaining missing.
Wu Jun-Hong, a Taipei Fire Department official in charge of the rescue, told USA Today that he is not remaining "too optimistic" that more survivors will be found.
Some of the survivors from the flight were reportedly found floating in the river, while others had managed to swim ashore. One survivor was found in a nearby park.
"I've never seen anything like this," a volunteer rescuer surnamed Chen said of Wednesday's crash, according to Reuters.
One eyewitness of the crash recalled the incident to BBC News.
"I saw a taxi, probably just metres ahead of me, being hit by one wing of the plane," an eyewitness told the British media outlet.
"The plane was huge and really close to me. I'm still trembling."
