TransAsia Plane Crash Survivor Describes Final Moments
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SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images(TAIPEI, Taiwan) — A 72-year-old survivor from the TransAsia plane crash in Taiwan described the final moments before the plane plummeted into the Taipei River and said he helped save some drowning passengers.
Huang Jin-Sun recalled the harrowing details while in a hospital bed at Tri Service General Hospital in Taipei.
“I felt something was not right after the plane took off,” Jin-Sun told Eastern Television, a Taiwanese cable broadcast station. “The flight was not full.”
“I told the woman next to me we should buckle our seat belts, hold onto the seat and cover our head,” Jin-Sun added.
Just as he finished saying that, the plane went down, Jin-Sun said.
“I saw others were drowning,” he said. “If I did not move quick enough to help them, soon, they would have been dead.”
The plane’s plunge was captured on dashcam video from Taiwan’s National Freeway No. 1. The plane could be seen veering sharply, with the wing striking a vehicle and barrier before careening into the river.
The pilot of the ill-fated TransAsia Flight 235 can be heard saying, “Mayday, mayday, engine flameout,” to the control tower in an audio clip that was confirmed by Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautical Administration as authentic.
More than 30 people died in the crash and 15 others were injured.
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