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24 of TransAsia dead identified

Source: Xinhua | February 5, 2015, Thursday | Online Edition

TWENTY-FOUR of the 31 people confirmed as killed in Wednesday's TransAsia Airways plane crash in Taiwan have been identified, according to the local disaster response authority.

As of 9:45 a.m. on Thursday, the crash had left 31 people dead, 15 on board injured and 12 missing. Besides those on the plane, the driver and a passenger in the taxi clipped by the plane before it plunged into the river were also injured.

The dead include 16 passengers from the Chinese mainland, five Taiwanese passengers and three crew members (the captain and two co-pilots).

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 after takeoff.

Rescuers operating underwater and in rafts and helicopters are 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 on Thursday that 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 on Thursday afternoon that the mainland civil aviation authorities will dispatch investigators.

Investigators from France, producer of the aircraft, and from Canada, producer of the engine, have also been invited.

Flight GE235 was heading for Kinmen from Taipei with 53 passengers on board, including 31 from the Chinese mainland, and five crew. Three of the mainland passengers are known to be children.

TransAsia decided on Thursday to hand out compensation of 200,000 new Taiwan dollars (about 6,356 U.S. dollars) to each injured victim (including the two in the taxi), and compensation of 1.2 million new Taiwan dollars to the family of each identified fatality.

Since the crash, Taiwan's civil aeronautics authority has conducted safety checks on power systems of the island's ATR-72 aircraft.

According to the authority, TransAsia had already completed two flights using ATR-72 aircraft on Wednesday before the crash, with flight and maintenance reports of these flights featuring no record of malfunction.

Dispatchers on duty denied the possibility of a rushed takeoff when interviewed by investigators.

Taipei Songshan Airport had canceled 11 local flights, which were all due to be served by ATR-72 aircraft, by 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, according to the airport's website.

A cross-Strait emergency response mechanism has been launched to deal with the accident.

The mainland passengers were on trips organized by two travel agencies from Xiamen City in Fujian Province, the Taiwan tourism authority confirmed.

The plane had been in service since April 2014 and was subject to a routine safety check last month, according to Taipei authorities.

TransAsia announced on Thursday that passengers who wanted to cancel their bookings would have their usual commission fees waived.

This is not the first time that an ATR-72 aircraft has crashed in Taiwan. On July 23, 2014, TransAsia Airways flight GE222 crashed on Taiwan's Penghu Island, killing 48 people.

TransAsia Airways, founded in 1951, was Taiwan's first private airline, mainly focusing on short overseas flights.

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