Taiwan: 48 dead in TransAsia Airways plane crash

TheGuardian: Plane crashed during landing attempt on one of Penghu islands as typhoon Matmo hit region

Forty-eight people are dead and 10 injured after their plane crashed while trying to land at a Taiwanese airport on Wednesday evening, hours after typhoon Matmo battered the region.

The transport minister Yeh Kuang-shih said TransAsia Airways flight GE222 had been attempting an emergency landing, which the airline said was necessary because of bad weather. The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said conditions on Penghu, an island between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, had been suitable for incoming flights.

The crash left wreckage tangled in the remains of a badly damaged building. The flight had taken off from Kaohsiung, in the south of Taiwan, bound for Penghu's Magong airport.

Two people aboard the plane were French citizens and the rest Taiwanese, said the transport minister, Yeh Kuang-shih. The plane had been carrying 58 passengers and crew.

The Taiwanese president, Ma Ying-jeou, said via a spokesman that it was "a very sad day in the history of Taiwanese aviation".

Jean Shen, director general of the CAA, said Magong air traffic controllers had lost contact with the flight during its go-around, when it was around 300 feet above the ground. She added that two flights had arrived safely just before GE222.

Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) reported that the pilot had been asked to wait until 7.06pm before being allowed to make his first attempt at landing. It is not clear what caused the delay or why his initial attempt failed.

The twin engine turboprop ATR-72 was due to take off at 4pm and arrive at Magong at 4.35pm, but did not leave Kaohsiung until 5.45pm, according to CNA. It was another hour and 20 minutes before it made its initial landing attempt.

The country's Aviation Safety Council called an emergency meeting to look into the cause of the accident. Its head, Wang Hsing-chung, told CNA it was unclear whether bad weather or human error was to blame.

In its statement TransAsia Airways said it was providing assistance to passengers and their families. It had also begun assisting the CAA and ASC investigation.

It added that the plane had been in use for 13 years. It was in the hands of pilot Lee Yi-liang, who had 22 years of experience and almost 23,000 flying hours on his record, and co-pilot Chiang Kuan-hsing, who had two and a half years of flying experience and just under 2,400 hours. The flight had 54 passengers and four crew on board.

According to the Flightradar24 website TransAsia Airways had cancelled almost all of its flights on Wednesday, presumably because of the bad weather.

The defence department dispatched 200 troops to the scene to assist, Taiwan's Now News reported.

Kaohsiung municipal government told Now News it had been in touch with TransAsia and requested the detailed list of passengers and crew members. A team from the CAA, aviation experts and relatives of the victims are due to fly to Magong on Thursday.

Taiwan's weather agency said typhoon Matmo had brought gusts of up to 67mph (108km/h) as it blew through on Wednesday, knocking out power to more than 30,000 homes, before moving towards south-east China. Forecasters had warned heavy rains would continue into the evening.

On the mainland, Fujian province officials said they had evacuated 300,000 people, but the typhoon weakened to a tropical storm as it reached the area.

In 2000, 83 of the 179 on board a Singapore Airlines flight died when it attempted to take off from the wrong runway at Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek international airport as a typhoon approached.

In 1998, a China Airlines jet a China Airlines jet from Bali failed in a first attempt to land at Taipei because of rain and fog, then stalled during the go-round and crashed into houses. All 196 on board and seven people on the ground died.

In 2002 all 225 people on board a China Airlines flight died when it crashed en route from Taipei to Hong Kong in good weather. The wreckage was found 45km off Penghu and investigators said the plane had broken up in mid-air.

Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies