Dashcams capture dramatic footage of Taiwanese plane crash

Taiwanese drivers reportedly captured the moments before TransAsia flight GE235 crashed into a river near the country's capital city of Taipei today. The unverified footage appears to show the plane, a turboprop ATR-72, rolling to the left as it descends over a road.

Apple Daily said the plane carried 58 — five crew and 53 passengers — but TransAsia spokesperson Frankie Fang was unable to confirm the number of people on board. Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council confirmed that there had been a plane crash at around 10:45 AM local time. The Taiwanese authority confirmed that two people had died in the crash, but a number of sources report that 12 people are dead. China's Xinhua News said that 27 people were rushed to hospital after being rescued from the plane's fuselage

Unverified footage of the plane, in which its wing appears to strike a car traveling along the raised expressway, was tweeted by Twitter user Missxoxo168. Pictures attributed to Taiwan's TVBS appear to show a taxi cab on the same stretch of road with extensive damage that could have been caused by collision with the plane's wing.

Live footage from the scene of the crash shows a number of rescue workers making efforts to extract passengers from the stricken plane, some three hours after the country's aviation authority said the crash took place. Pictures taken by journalist Tim Culpan on location show most of the plane submerged in water, with rescue workers using inflatable boats to reach the fuselage. The Taipei city government has established a disaster response center to deal with the aftermath of the crash.

This is the second TransAsia ATR-72 turboprop plane to crash in Taiwan in six months. Last July, 48 people were killed when TransAsia flight 222 crashed in Penghu, off the coast of Taiwan, after it failed to make a second landing during typhoon conditions. The two fatal crashes are a blow to the Taiwanese aviation industry, which worked to make changes to its safety record after a series of high-profile crashes in the 1990s and 2000s. Prior to July's incident, the last fatal plane crash on the island occurred in May 2002, when a China Airlines 747 broke up in the air during a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong.