Relatives of plane crash victims fly to Taipei

Family members of mainland passengers walk to go through security check at Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Feb. 5, 2015. Sixteen of the 31 confirmed deaths in the Taiwan TransAsia Airways plane crash were Chinese mainland residents. As of 9:45 a.m. Thursday, the fatal crash had left 31 dead, 15 with injuries, and 12 missing. All the missing passengers are tourists from the Chinese mainland. Three other mainland passengers were injured. Family members of these mainland passengers have already been arranged to go to Taiwan. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

XIAMEN, Feb. 5 -- Relatives of passengers on Taiwan's TransAsia Airways Flight ATR-72 left Xiamen on Thursday for Taipei, where the plane crashed into a river ten minutes after takeoff, killing at least 31.

The aircraft was carrying 53 passengers and five crew members when it crashed into the Keelung River on Wednesday morning, authorities said. The plane was en route to Kinmen from Taipei.

It has been confirmed that 31 passengers were from the Chinese mainland, and they were on trips organized by two travel agencies from Xiamen City in Fujian Province, the Taiwan tourism authority confirmed.

As of 9:45 a.m. Thursday, 31 had died, 15 sustained injuries, and 12 are still missing. All the missing passengers are tourists from the Chinese mainland.

The Taiwan authorities confirmed that 16 of the 31 mainland passengers had died and three others injured.

The aircraft plunged into the river at 10:55 a.m. Wednesday after its wing clipped a taxi with a man and a woman inside on an elevated freeway.

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