A Taiwan-based airline had its second fatal incident in less than 12 months, when one of its planes hit a bridge and crashed into the local river.
Footage captured by a driver on the bridge shows the plane missing an apartment block only to hit the bridge and then plunge into the river.
Reports are still unconfirmed, but it is believed that around 31 people died in the TransAsia crash. 15 others are said to have survived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km1RnVRK-9c
The incident comes less than seven months after another TransAsia plane crashed while landing in stormy weather. The incident resulted in 48 deaths, USA Today reported.
Prior to that, the airline hadn’t had any fatalities since 2002, when two pilots died after their cargo plane plunged into the sea.
Since the footage of the crash came out, people have taken to social media to express their sympathies and to praise pilots for redirecting the plane away from major buildings.
Search and rescue teams working to recover bodies and trapped passengers.
One Facebook user said pilots do the best they can and those on the TransAir plane tried their best to avoid hitting the bridge.
Keith Thomas also praised the pilots saying they deserve credit for finding a suitable place to crash within a few seconds.
“Well done to the pilot for managing to put it down in the water, loss of life would have been terrible if it had hit a populated area.”
Kimberley Fishface, Facebook user
Another user defended the airline industry after a number of commenters expressed concerns over recent crashes.
“People need to get this into perspective. There are nearly 38 million flights per year worldwide and I can think of three or four crashes that have made the global news in the last 12 month.”
Peter Metalli, Facebook user
