Taiwan was last night struck by its third civil aviation disaster in just over a month with 13 people presumed dead after a domestic airliner crashed into the sea off the northwest coast.
The 37-seat, twin-propeller Formosa Airlines SAAB-360 had just taken off from Hsinchu, in northern Taiwan, on a flight to Kaohsiung when it disappeared from controllers' radar screens just after 7.30 pm.
The Swedish-built aircraft, which stopped responding to air controllers just three minutes after takeoff, crashed approximately six nautical miles off the coast, near Hsinchu.
The plane had been carrying eight passengers and five crew.
A TV news bulletin said rescue boats had found wreckage in the water and recovered two bodies, although officials could not confirm the report.
The flight's takeoff had been delayed about 20 minutes due to poor visibility amid bad weather, Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Tsai Duei said.
Military and civilian rescue units were unable to send helicopters to the site due to bad weather, he added.