Dashcam Captures TransAsia Plane Crash

Dramatic dashcam footage shows a Taiwanese flight carrying 58 people crashing into a shallow river after narrowly missing nearby high rise buildings.

The video below shows TransAsia Airways Flight FE235 clipping a bridge as it crashed into a river below. A taxi on the bridge was also struck by the plane’s wing, but its two occupants survived with injures. Fifteen survivors were immediately rescued from the crash site and 32 people were confirmed dead. 11 others – including two pilots – were still missing as of Feburary 5. Most of the victims are said to have been in the front of the plane.

The pilot is reported to have called “Mayday” three times before the plane went down, and stated there was an “engine flameout.” The ATR 72-600 is said to have a good safety record, and the pilot had nearly 5000 hours of flight experience. The plane’s black boxes were recovered less than a day after the crash.

Investigation into the cause of the crash it expected to be aided by the accessibility of the crash site. Over half of the passengers were from China in the flight which was en route from Taipei to the Kinmen islands, which is a common link to a province in China.

Updated February 5, 2015