Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

A TransAsia Airways Corp. turboprop plane crashed into Keelung River near Taipei with the aircraft losing contact after takeoff. It was the second accident in less than a year for the Taiwanese airline.

Flight GE 235 from Taipei to Kinmen crashed at about 10:45 a.m. local time, Thomas Wang, a spokesman for the Aviation Safety Council said. At least one person died from the accident, the National Fire Agency public relations officer Lin Kuan-cheng said by phone.

Ten people were rescued and 40 people were injured in the crash, Apple Daily reported. The plane had 53 passengers and five crew, it said. TransAsia spokeswoman Frankie Fang was unable to confirm how many people were on board the ATR-72 aircraft, a propeller plane made by Toulouse, France-based ATR. She also gave no information on any fatalities.

A TransAsia turboprop plane had crashed in July last year, killing 48 people. That plane went down after the pilots couldn’t find the runway seconds before their aircraft slammed on Taiwan’s outlying Penghu islands, according to the accident report. Ten people survived that crash, which was also an ATR 72 twin-engine turbo-propeller aircraft.

Flight 235 lost contact after takeoff, Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration said. Two tour groups from mainland China with 31 members were aboard the crashed TransAsia flight, according to a text message from Taiwan’s tourism bureau.

Last year was the deadliest year for air travel since 2005 globally. Malaysia Airlines lost two Boeing Co. 777s -- one thought to have disappeared in the Indian Ocean, and flight MH17 presumed shot down over Ukraine. Then last month, AirAsia Bhd. lost a plane in Indonesia. The global annual toll was 884, according to safety consultant Ascend Worldwide.

Established in November 1981, ATR is a joint partnership between Airbus Group NV and Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi, a Finmeccanica company, according to ATR’s website.

ATR has sold nearly 1,500 aircraft and has over 180 operators in more than 90 countries. The ATR 72 can seat 70 passengers and every 15 seconds, an ATR turboprop takes off somewhere around the world, according to the website.