48 dead, 10 injured in Taiwan plane crash : TransAsia Airways

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TAIPEI: Forty-eight people have been confirmed dead and 10 injured in a Taiwan plane crash on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reports quoting the airliner on Thursday.

TransAsia Airways Flight GE 222 carrying 54 passengers and four crew on board smashed into residential buildings after attempting an emergency landing at Magong Airport during stormy weather on the outlying Penghu Islands on Wednesday evening.

The plane was flying from Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan to Penghu Islands in the west.

Transport authorities said one of the plane’s black boxes had been found.

The twin-engine ATR-72 turboprop aircraft was originally scheduled to take off at 4 p.m. but left Kaohsiung at 5:43 p.m. due to bad weather.

Several villagers were also injured in the crash, local media reported.

Wang Hsing-chung, head of Taiwan’s aviation safety council, said it was too early to speculate the cause of the crash. –BERNAMA