Taiwan plane with 58 aboard crashes in Taipei; 2 killed

TAIPEI, Taiwan: Taiwan’s aviation authority say at least two people have been killed when a commercial flight with 58 people aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and crashed into a river in the island’s capital of Taipei.
Aviation authority director Lin Chi-ming told a news conference that two people were killed. The country’s Central News Agency said three people were killed.

Taiwanese media posted pictures of the plane in the water several dozen meters 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.
Television images showed rescuers standing on large sections of broken wreckage trying to pull passengers out of the plane with ropes. Those who were rescued — including two children — were put in dinghies and taken to the shore.
Some were then loaded on stretchers and all 17 rescued have been taken to hospital, reports said.