It is with great sadness that we report a TransAsia plane crash in Taiwan that left more than two dozen passengers dead.
(CNN)A passenger plane clipped a bridge and plunged into a river in Taiwan on Wednesday, killing at least 25 people, according to the island’s Civil Aeronautics Administration.
Rescuers scrambled to pull survivors from the submerged wreck of the ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop aircraft, which went down shortly after takeoff from Taipei, the Taiwanese capital.
Fifty-eight people were aboard TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 when it veered out of control as it flew to Kinmen, off the coast of the Chinese province of Xiamen.
The toll: 25 confirmed dead, 15 injured, including two on the ground, and 18 missing, officials said. The search and rescue effort continues.
Crews later recovered the aircraft’s “black boxes,” the island’s official news agency, CNA, said. The flight data recorder and voice data recorder were found in the tail of the plane, Ang Xingzhong, the executive director of Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council, told the news agency.
A dash-cam video captured the moment the plane hurtled out of control above the city’s Nanhu Bridge before crashing into the Keelung River, just after 11 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET).
CNA reported that the pilot appeared to try to control the plane as it descended, but the aircraft’s wing grazed the overpass, clipping a passing taxi.
The two people in the taxi were injured but are in stable condition after being taken to hospital, CNA said.
Rescuers in lifeboats pulled survivors from the water and the wreckage. Some passengers appeared to be wearing life jackets as they waited their turn to board rescue boats.
The military said it had 165 personnel and numerous vehicles nearby to assist rescue efforts if required.
Kinmen is a small island under Taiwan’s jurisdiction near mainland China.Hours after the crash, TransAsia Airways CEO Chen Xinde extended a “deep apology to the victims and our crew.”
He said 31 of the passengers aboard the flight were Chinese tourists, including three children. Twenty-two were from Taiwan, including one child.
Unfotunately, this is the latest in a series of plane crashes by Asian carriers.
Last year, an older TransAsia ATR 72, which was attempting to land in the Taiwanese Penghu Islands, crashed, resulting in 48 deaths.
The TransAsia crash is the latest in a number of plane tragedies involving Asian carriers.
AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed on December 28 as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya toward Singapore. There were 162 people on board.
In July, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard.
TransAsia was involved in another deadly crash in July of last year, too. In Taiwan, 48 died on TransAsia Airways Flight 222, another ATR 72 aircraft. The cause of that crash is unclear.
The biggest recent mystery has been the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. It disappeared on March 8, 2014, and has not been found.
At the moment there is no known cause for the crash. We send our condolences to the victims and families of those lost in the crash.
To read the full report head over to CNN.com.
Watch the disturbing footage, captured by a driver who was commuting at the time of the crash, below and share your thoughts.
