Nineteen bodies from a China Airlines (CAL) plane which crashed into the sea west of Taiwan with 225 people on board have been found after an overnight search by military rescuers, an official said on Sunday.
”A total of 19 bodies have been retrieved as of 7:30am (2330 GMT Saturday),” an official of the Civil Aeronautics Administration told reporters.
Television footage showed airborne rescuers using searchlights and flares to comb the area for survivors after Premier Yu Shyi-kun ordered an around-the-clock search.
More than 100 bodies have been sighted, said Vice Transport Minister Yu Fang-lai.
”According to rescue workers, they saw over 100 bodies floating at sea off Makung’s Chikang dock,” said Yu who is in charge of the rescue mission based in Makung, the biggest city on the Penghu Island group, about 50 kilometres west of Taiwan.
Helicopters, seven military aircraft and 27 navy and coastguard vessels have been mobilised for rescue work.
Pieces of wreckage picked up by rescue teams would be examined by aviation safety authorities on Sunday, Yu said.
The remains of the victims were housed in a make-shift mortuary in a military stadium near the Makung airport to be identified by their relatives.
A group of 109 people arrived in Makung late on Saturday, hours after the crash, and was joined by another group of 150, officials said.
The relatives, many of them weeping, were whisked away by officials to submit DNA samples and help identify the bodies.
Three dentists also flew into Penghu to help identify the remains of victims of the crash using dental records. Buddhist charities have sent volunteers to Makung to comfort the families.
China Airlines said flight CI611 disappeared from radar screens at 3:28pm (0728 GMT) on Saturday shortly after taking off from Taipei for Hong Kong at 3:08pm.
The 225 people on board included 19 crew and 206 passengers, among them three children and two journalists from the leading Chinese-language United Daily News group.
A total of 189 passengers were Taiwanese, two were Singaporeans, one was from Switzerland, five — four males and a female ? from Hong Kong, and the remainder from Macau, according to China Airline?s updated list. – Sapa-AFP