They shut off the engines:
"Death toll rises to 31 in Taiwan crash; 15 people are rescued, but 12 still missing" by Ralph Jennings, Associated Press February 05, 2015
TAIPEI — Rescuers were searching for 12 people Thursday morning after using a crane to hoist the fuselage of a wrecked TransAsia Airways plane from a shallow river in Taiwan’s capital following a crash that killed at least 31 others.
Flight 235 with 58 people aboard — many of them travelers from China — banked sharply on its side Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Taipei, clipped a highway bridge, and then careened into the Keelung River.
Rescuers in rubber rafts pulled 15 people alive from the wreckage during daylight. After dark, they brought in the crane, and the death toll was expected to rise once crews were able to search through submerged portions of the fuselage, which came to rest a few dozen yards from the shore.
Dramatic video clips apparently taken from cars were posted online and aired by broadcasters, showing the ATR 72 propjet as it pivoted onto its side while zooming toward a traffic bridge over the river. In one of them, the plane rapidly fills the frame as its now-vertical wing scrapes over the road, hitting a vehicle before heading into the river.
Speculation cited in local media said the crew may have turned sharply to follow the line of the river to avoid crashing into a high-rise residential area, but Taiwan’s aviation authority said it had no evidence of that.
Taiwanese broadcasters repeatedly played a recording of the plane’s final contact with the control tower in which the crew called out ‘‘Mayday’’ three times. The recording offered no direct clues as to why the plane was in distress.
It was the airline’s second French-Italian-built ATR 72 to crash in the past year. Wednesday’s flight had taken off at 11:53 a.m. from Taipei’s downtown Sungshan Airport en route to the outlying Taiwanese-controlled Kinmen islands. The crew issued the mayday call shortly after takeoff, Taiwanese authorities said.
TransAsia director Peter Chen said contact with the plane was lost four minutes after takeoff. He said weather conditions were suitable for flying and the cause of the accident was unknown.
‘‘Actually, this aircraft in the accident was the newest model. It hadn’t been used for even a year,’’ he told a news conference.
Thirty-one passengers were from China, Taiwan’s tourism bureau said. Kinmen’s airport is a common link between Taipei and China’s Fujian province.
Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration said 31 people were confirmed dead, 15 were rescued with injuries and 12 were still missing. It said two people on the ground were hurt.
Part of the freeway above the river where the plane crashed was littered with debris and was closed after the accident.
Relatives of the victims had not reached the scene by dusk Wednesday but some were expected to arrive Thursday, including some flying from Beijing.
The plane’s wing hit a taxi on the freeway, and the driver and a passenger were injured, Chen said.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had sent 165 people and eight boats to the riverside rescue scene, joining fire department rescue crews.
Another ATR 72 operated by the same Taipei-based airline crashed in the outlying Taiwan-controlled islands of Penghu last July 23, killing 48 at the end of a typhoon for reasons still under investigation.
ATR, a French-Italian consortium based in Toulouse, France, said it was sending a team to Taiwan to help in the investigation.
The ATR 72-600 that crashed Wednesday is the manufacturer’s best plane model, and the pilot had 4,900 hours of flying experience, said Lin Chih-ming of the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
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No Hudson River landing for them, huh?
Related:
"Dashboard camera videos from vehicles that were traveling along the elevated roadway show the plane narrowly avoiding buildings as it descended, then banking violently before crashing. The twin turboprop is capable of flying on a single engine, which has led analysts to conclude it probably suffered problems with both engines. “The pilots had misidentified which engine had malfunctioned and they shut down the good one.” It could be a year or longer before the investigation’s final conclusions are released."
Yup, it's always pilot error, and I know I have heard that before:
"Indonesian divers recovered seven more bodies from December’s AirAsia crash, including one from the jet’s cockpit, bringing the total number of victims retrieved to 100. The Airbus A320-200 crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 while flying from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed (AP)."
Also see: Taiwan Charges Dozens of Protesters in Takeover of Government Buildings
But will it make tomorrow's Globe?
UPDATE: Stolen Twain plaque is recovered
Related: "The results were another black mark for Taiwan’s third-largest airline, which has had two deadly crashes in seven months."
