View of Taipei, Taiwan, the city the crash was in. http://mrg.bz/j50M2k
On February 4, 2015, TransAsia Airways Flight 235 crashed into the Keelung River in Taipei, Taiwan.
The flight was a relatively small passenger flight with only 53 passengers and 5 crew, making its way from the Taiwanese capital city of Taipei to Kinmen, China.
At the time of the crash, The New York Times estimated that at least 31 passengers were dead, but a new total of 43 deaths has been released.
Flight 235 is the second accident involving TransAsia Airways. The first involved Flight 222 in late July 2014.
The Guardian said the pilot of Flight 235, Liao Chien-tsung, was deemed a hero. He was able to steer the plane away from the heavily trafficked areas of the city, mainly the skyscrapers, which would have caused even more deaths.
The plane did clip a taxi on an elevated highway while the plane was heading for the river. According to The Guardian and The New York Times, it left a trail of debris and the taxi completely incapacitated, injuring two people inside.
Supposedly, a father, mother and toddler managed to save their own lives. The Guardian recounts that the family decided to switch seats before the flight took off. Their original seats, on the left side of the plane, were located amidst the most heavily damaged section.
A family friend reported that the father, Lin-Ming-wei, “felt uneasy after he heard noises before take-off and requested to switch seats.”
His hunch saved the family from death, but the one-year-old son, found by his father three minutes after the crash to be blue and not breathing, was hospitalized and put into intensive care.
Investigators know the plane crashed from an engine flameout, as was reported on the cockpit’s recorder, but the question is whether the two crashes were connected.
The cause of the accident of Flight 222 is still under investigation according to The New York Times. The two crashes are raising valid concerns regarding the safety of TransAsia Airways’ flights, planes, pilots, and passengers.