Plane Crashes While Landing In Taiwan, Killing 47

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) —
Rescue workers survey the wreckage of TransAsia Airways flight GE222, which crashed while attempting to land in stormy weather on the Taiwanese island of Penghu, late Wednesday. (AP Photo/Wong Yao-wen)
Rescue workers survey the wreckage of TransAsia Airways flight GE222, which crashed while attempting to land in stormy weather on the Taiwanese island of Penghu, late Wednesday. (AP Photo/Wong Yao-wen)

A plane attempting to land in stormy weather crashed on a small Taiwanese island late Wednesday, killing 47 people and wrecking houses and cars on the ground.

The ATR-72 operated by Taiwan’s TransAsia Airways was carrying 58 passengers and crew when it crashed on Penghu in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China, authorities said. The plane was arriving from the city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan.

Two people aboard the plane were French citizens and the rest Taiwanese, Transport Minister Yeh Kuang-shih told reporters. The twin-engine turboprop crashed while making a second landing attempt, Yeh said.

The crash of flight GE222 was Taiwan’s first fatal air accident in 12 years and came after Typhoon Matmo passed across the island, causing heavy rains that continued into Wednesday night. Some 200 airline flights had been canceled earlier in the day due to rain and strong winds.

The official death toll was 47, according to Wen Chia-hung, spokesman for the Penghu disaster response center. He said the 11 other people were injured.

Authorities were looking for one person who might have been in a house that was struck by wreckage, Wen said. A car was crushed by a toppled wall but Wen said no one was in it.

President Ma Ying-jeou called it “a very sad day in the history of Taiwanese aviation,” according to a spokesman for his office, Ma Wei-kuo, the government’s Central News Agency reported.

The plane came down in the village of Xixi outside the airport. Media stations showed rescue workers pulling bodies from wreckage. Photos in local media showed firefighters using flashlights to look through the wreckage, and buildings damaged by debris.:

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