Inko Plane Crashes In Taiwan, Killing At Least 47

July 23, 2014

A plane crashed while attempting to land in stormy weather at a small airport in Taiwan on Wednesday, killing at least 47 people, officials there say.

TransAsia Airways flight GE222, which originated from the southern port city of Kaohsiung, was carrying 54 passengers and four flight crew when it crashed during a second landing attempt on the typhoon-battered island of Penghu, officials said.

There were conflicting reports about the number of fatalities.

Taiwan's Transport Minister Yeh Kuang-shih told the government's Central News Agency that 47 people were "trapped and feared dead," and 11 others were injured in the crash. Earlier, a fire official said that 51 people had been killed and seven had been injured. Reuters reported 47 people were killed in the crash, citing China's Xinhua news agency.

The plane, a twin-engine turboprop ATR 72, was en route to Taipei when it attempted the emergency landing in Magong. Typhoon Matmo hit Taiwan on Wednesday, bringing heavy rains and strong winds to the region.

"It was thunderstorm conditions during the crash," Hsi Wen-guang, a spokesman for the Penghu County Government Fire Bureau, said. "A few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished."

Video taken in the aftermath of the crash shows rescue workers sifting through the plane's wreckage in what appears to be a residential area. a878d2a0-127d-11e4-8470-bbf74ac8d4e3_AP4