Thai rescue team searches for crash victims

Keelung River, Taipei Photo: Kenner116

The TransAsia ATR-72 flight crashed in the Keelung River in Taipei on Wednesday. The plane had just taken off from the Taipei Songshan Airport before the shocking incident occurred. It was caught on video by one passing car, which has been broadcast heavily in media, alongside an audio clip of the pilot's mayday call to air traffic control.

At present, there has been no confirmed of the cause of the crash, although authorities have ordered special checks to be carried out on all ATR Planes.

Fred Wu, President of TransAsia Airways, confirmed that the company's ATR 72 fleet has been grounded while the checks take place.

"The airline, as requested from the CAA, is specifically checking all ATR aircraft in the fleet. They have not finished checking one until this morning.

"Once we have one finished, CAA will confirm the results before we start flying that aircraft again."

31 people died in the crash, with 15 survivors having beeing pulled out of the wreckage. The deceased includes the pilot, who has been hailed as a hero for avoiding built-up areas in the city, reports Yahoo. 12 people are still missing.

"This morning we have some 60 divers going underwater to search," Liu Yung-chou of the national fire agency told the BBC.

The event follows several high profile aviation incidents in the past year, although safety analysts Ascend tells the BBC's Transport Correspondent Richard Westcott that 2014 was the safest year on record for air travel, with one fatal accident per 2.38 million flights, compared to 2013's ratio of one to every 1.91 million.