47 people feared dead in Taiwan plane crash

Rescue workers survey the wreckage of TransAsia Airways flight GE222 which crashed on the Taiwanese island of Penghu on Wednesday. — AP

A plane landing in stormy weather crashed outside an airport on a small Taiwanese island late on Wednesday, and the transport minister said 47 people were trapped and feared dead.

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.

Yeh was quoted as saying the flight, operated by Taiwan’s TransAsia Airways, carried 58 passengers and crew members.

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.

Penghu is a lightly populated island that averages about two flights a day from Taipei. The flight left Kaohsiung at 4.53pm for Magong on Penghu, according to the head of Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration, Jean Shen. At 7.06pm, after saying it would make a second attempt at a landing, the plane lost contact with the tower.

Visibility as the plane approached was 1,600 metres, which met standards for landing, and two flights had landed before GE222, one at 5.34pm and the other at 6.57pm, the agency reported.

But it appeared that heavy rain reduced visibility and the plane was forced to pull up and make a second landing attempt, the report cited the county fire department as saying.