A Taiwanese commercial flight with 53 passengers aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and crashed into a river in the island s capital of Taipei early morning today, killing at least nine people, state media said.
Taiwanese media posted pictures of the plane in the water several dozen meters (yards) from the shore in the Keelung River.
CNA said the flight from Taipei to the outlying island of Kinmen lost contact with flight controllers at 10:55 a.m. and the fuselage landed in the Keelung River near the city s downtown Sungshan airport.
The plane was identified as a French-made twin-engine turboprop ATR 72 with a two-pilot air crew.
Shortly afterwords, the plane s fuselage was seen half-submerged in the shallow river, with passengers and rescuers standing on the hull and swimming in the water.
Though no reason is known for the crash at this point in time. but stormy weather is suspected as being the underlying cause of the mishap.
