TAIPEI, Taiwan--Dozens of people aboard a plane flying to a Taiwanese island were killed on Wednesday when the aircraft crashed in bad weather during an emergency landing, Taiwan’s Transportation Ministry said.

The TransAsia Airways twin turboprop was flying from the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung, on the main island, to Magong on the Penghu Islands in rain and heavy winds as Typhoon Matmo passed through the region. Gusts approaching 40 miles per hour were reported.

The Transportation Ministry said late Wednesday that 47 people had been killed and 11 injured when the plane, an ATR 72, crashed into residential buildings in a village near Magong and caught fire.

The 14-year-old plane was carrying 54 passengers and four crew members, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.

Flight GE 222, which is normally scheduled to leave at 4 p.m., was delayed because of bad weather. It finally left at 5:42 p.m. for the 35-minute trip to Magong, the agency reported.

A spokesman for Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council told reporters that it was too early to say whether the crash was caused by the typhoon. A nine-member group from the Aviation Safety Council was scheduled to fly to Magong late Wednesday to begin investigating.

News footage from Magong showed the badly damaged fuselage of the plane resting on a wall amid houses. Injured passengers were seen climbing out of the plane.

The fire was extremely big,” one witness, Hsueh De-chong, wrote on Facebook, Taiwan’s Apple Daily reported. “It burned even in the heavy rain.”

TransAsia’s general manager, Hsu Yi-tsung, appeared before reporters in Taipei and bowed in apology for the crash.

Local television showed one woman, Hsu Yu-jie, a 34-year-old employee of the Penghu County accounting and statistics department, collapsing in tears as airline personnel tried to console her. “My daughter,” she said, sobbing.

TransAsia is a 63-year-old private airline that flies mainly in Taiwan but also has routes to China, Japan and Southeast Asia. It flies a dozen Airbus jets and 10 turboprops from the French-Italian manufacturer ATR.

TransAsia has had at least one previous fatal crash with an ATR. In 2002, an ATR 72-200 freight aircraft with two pilots crashed into the sea near the Penghu Islands while traveling between Taipei and Macau. Severe icing was believed to be the cause of that crash. (Source: The New York Times)

Story Date: July 24, 2014