47 die as plane crashes in typhoon-hit Taiwan
24 July 2014 6:04 AM IST
The plane, a 70-seat ATR 72, crashed near the runway on the island of Penghu, west of the mainland, with 54 passengers and four crew on board, they said. No one was killed or hurt in the buildings.
Eleven injured people on the plane were taken to hospital, the government said. The aircraft took off from Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung, headed for the island of Makong, but crash-landed in Huxi township of Penghu County, the main island of the chain also known as the Pescadores.
‘It was thunderstorm conditions during the crash,’ said Hsi Wen-guang, a spokesman for the Penghu County Government Fire Bureau. ‘From the crash site we sent 11 people to hospital with injuries.
A few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished.’ Taiwanese transport minister Yeh Kuang-shih was quoted by the government’s Central News Agency as saying 11 other people were injured when the plane crashed and caught fire while making a second landing attempt.
The news agency had earlier quoted a local fire brigade chief as saying that 51 people had been killed.
Flight GE222, a twin-engine turboprop ATR-72 aircraft, was heading from the southern port city of Kaohsiung to the island of Penghu in the Taiwan Strait, according to the Taiwanese news agency.
Eleven injured people on the plane were taken to hospital, the government said. The aircraft took off from Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung, headed for the island of Makong, but crash-landed in Huxi township of Penghu County, the main island of the chain also known as the Pescadores.
‘It was thunderstorm conditions during the crash,’ said Hsi Wen-guang, a spokesman for the Penghu County Government Fire Bureau. ‘From the crash site we sent 11 people to hospital with injuries.
A few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished.’ Taiwanese transport minister Yeh Kuang-shih was quoted by the government’s Central News Agency as saying 11 other people were injured when the plane crashed and caught fire while making a second landing attempt.
The news agency had earlier quoted a local fire brigade chief as saying that 51 people had been killed.
Flight GE222, a twin-engine turboprop ATR-72 aircraft, was heading from the southern port city of Kaohsiung to the island of Penghu in the Taiwan Strait, according to the Taiwanese news agency.
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