TransAsia Airways Crash: 15 injured and 43 dead and missing

TAIPEI—More bodies were recovered from Taipei’s Keelung River on Friday as rescue efforts continued two days after TransAsia Airways Corp. Flight 235 crashed shortly after takeoff.

In a Friday statement, the airline said 35 people were dead, 15 injured and eight people—all Chinese nationals—were still missing. The plane was carrying 53 passengers and five cabin crew members.

Air-traffic control lost communication with the plane’s pilots four minutes after takeoff from Taipei’s Songshan Airport en route to Kinmen, an outlying island, at about 10:53 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said earlier. Many of the plane’s passengers were Chinese tourists from the mainland province of Fujian, next to Kinmen.

Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council plans to release an initial analysis of data from the plane’s blackboxes at 3 p.m. Friday. So far, authorities and TransAsia haven’t suggested possible crash causes.

Earlier Friday, the CAA said the carrier would be banned from adding new international routes for a year. TransAsia had already been excluded from new international routes after a crash in July killed 49 people. The second plane crash extends the ban to Feb. 4, 2016, the CAA said.

Taiwan’s aviation authority on Thursday confirmed in an interview that a recording of an exchange between air-traffic control and the plane on which a distress call can be heard is the last communication between the pilot and the control tower before the crash. The recording, in which a pilot can be heard saying “Mayday mayday, engine flameout,” was released Wednesday by an independent website that monitors air-traffic-control communications.

A CAA official declined to confirm the name of the pilot whose voice is heard. The official said any interpretation of the recording must be done by the Aviation Safety Council, which is responsible for the investigation.

At a memorial service Thursday, Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je paid respect to the pilot, Liao Chien-chung, who died in the crash. Mr. Ko said the pilot saved thousands of lives by directing the plane away from a bustling area in its descent path—including a subway station, a hospital, a busy highway and Nankang Software Park, which houses a cluster of technology companies.

“This accident is a tragedy, but we must thank the pilot who did his best,” Mr. Ko said at a news conference.

Mr. Liao, 41 years old, had more than 4,900 flight hours before the crash, the CAA said. His aunt, who didn’t provide her name, said that Mr. Liao, the son of night market vendors in southern Taiwan, had long dreamed of becoming a pilot.

“Ever since he was little, he has been a strong person. The Liao family is very poor so he had to take care of everything by himself,” she said. She said her nephew always reminded his mother to keep warm during winter. “In fact, she is wearing the jacket that he bought for her,” she added.