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Forty-Nine Dead, 48 Missing After Taiwan Plane Crash
CHIANG KAI SHEK AIRPORT, Taiwan (AFP) - At least 49 people were reported dead Wednesday with 48 unaccounted for after a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 jet plunged to the ground and burst into flames shortly after take-off from Taipei.
The Los Angeles-bound jet, carrying 159 passengers and 20 crewmembers, broke into three pieces and burned fiercely after crashing in typhoon winds and torrential rain late Tuesday.
Singapore Airlines had said earlier in a statement that 68 casualties had been taken to hospital, with 16 passengers confirmed as not injured.
Of the crew, one cabin crewmember was hospitalized but the three cockpit crew were not injured, the statement said.
Early reports suggested typhoon winds, which battered the island late Tuesday, could have caused the crash.
"Due to a sidewind, the plane crashed," a police spokesman in Taipei had said.
But Singapore Airlines spokesman Innes Willox told a briefing in Singapore "the flight commander on board the aircraft reported hitting an object on the take-off run."
No other details about the possible cause of the crash, which happened at 11:19 pm (1519 GMT) Tuesday, were available, he said.
"We are waiting further information. The plane is on the runway, but as to the exact details we are still trying to get information," he said.
"We are still getting information of what exactly transpired during take off."
At least 100 fire and medical crews rushed to the burning wreckage after the crash
A newly married Taiwanese couple, who were heading to Los Angeles for their honeymoon, recounted the horrific moment when the jet plunged onto the runway.
Yu Yen-hui, 30, said: "I heard the sound of cracking when the plane started to take off.
"Then the plane tilted left and in a few seconds, balls of fire flew to us from the front part of the plane. I was so scared I started to run. I thought now we were dead."
Her husband Chen Tien-hsueh, 34, said: "At around 10:45 pm shortly before the take-off, I asked the airplane crew was it safe to fly in the bad weather?
"They told me there was no problem although I felt the plane was shaking against the strong winds ... We chose the carrier because we thought it had had a good record in flight safety."
The couple married on Sunday and were heading to L.A. for a 10-day honeymoon. They suffered only minor injuries.
Taiwan's weather bureau said that the weather at the airport at the time of the crash was an "eight" on the wind speed scale, TVBS reported.
Taiwan's Vice Interior Minister Li Yi-yang denied reports the Boeing jet, flight number SQ006, had hit a passenger aircraft from Taiwan's China Airlines (CAL) which had been on the ground.
"The CAL plane remained intact," Li told reporters.
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian in a statement said he was "highly concerned about the accident and ordered responsible government agencies to launch a rescue." He also asked the military to provide every possible assistance.
The tragedy brought back painful memories of another recent tragedy at the airport.
In February 1998, a China Airlines jet ploughed into a row of houses outside Chiang Kai Shek airport, killing all 182 passengers and 14 crew on board. Six people on the ground were also killed.
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