(Bloomberg) -- A TransAsia Airways Corp. turboprop plane crashedinto a river near Taipei moments after taking off, killing at least25 of the 58 people on board in the second fatal accident in lessthan a year for the Taiwanese airline.

At least 15 people survived the crash of Flight GE235 and weretaken to hospitals for treatment, according to the CivilAeronautics Administration, with 18 occupants of the plane stillunaccounted for. The aircraft’s cockpit-voice recorder andflight-data recorder have been recovered for analysis. The pilotscalled “Mayday, mayday, engine” distress call 2 minutes aftertakeoff, according to a recording posted on LiveATC.net.

Watch dashcam video of the plane moments before itcrashes into the river below.

The ATR 72-600 aircraft, a twin-engine turbo-propeller modelcarrying 53 passengers and five crew, took off in the morning fromSongshan domestic airport in downtown Taipei on an hour-long flightto the island of Kinmen off mainland China. The pilot lost contactwith the ground within four minutes, the airline’s Chief ExecutiveOfficer Peter Chen said.

Footage taken from a dashboard-mounted camera in a car showedthe plane’s wings tilted at a steep angle as it swerved over abridge, with one tip clipping a taxi and the railing beforeplunging into the Keelung River. Two people in the taxi sustainedinjuries, the city government said. Two tour groups from mainlandChina with 31 members were aboard the plane, made by Toulouse,France-based ATR.

Deadly Crashes

Another TransAsia ATR crashed in July last year, killing 48people. That plane went down after the pilots couldn’t find therunway seconds before their aircraft slammed down on Taiwan’soutlying Penghu islands, according to an accident report. Tenpeople survived that crash, which was also an ATR 72 twin-engineturbo-propeller aircraft.

Last year was the deadliest year for air travel since 2005globally. Malaysia Airlines lost two Boeing Co. 777s -- one thoughtto have disappeared in the Indian Ocean, and flight MH17 presumedshot down over Ukraine. Then in late December, AirAsia Bhd. lost aplane in Indonesia. The global annual toll was 884, according tosafety consultant Ascend Worldwide.

“An incident right after the Indonesia accident doesn’t reflectwell on the region as whole and on the industry in this part of theworld,” Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation research firm EndauAnalytics, said from Singapore. “The skies over Taiwan are going toget crowded with increased traffic from mainland China. This is anurgent issue that needs to be resolved quickly.”

The Aviation Safety Council of Taiwan will lead theinvestigation, planemaker ATR said in a statement. The planemakerwill advise French agency BEA, it said.

Keelung River

Onlookers watched on both banks of the Keelung River, which isadjacent to the airport, as a dozen rescuers were on top of thepartially-submerged fuselage, trying to break through to check formore people. They managed to open at least one rescue hatch.Ambulances and fire trucks lined the south bank of the river, whichstretches about 80 meters bank to bank in the area where the planewent down.

In the light drizzle against an overcast sky, rescuers weremoving about in at least six small inflatable rescue boats. Rescuedivers searched underwater, assisted by a hovercraft as a searchhelicopter hovered above the site.

Some of the passengers brought to the Taipei City Hospital hadfractured bones and bruises, according to Chen Chia-chich, aspokesman for the medical center. A 38-year-old from mainland Chinawas admitted to intensive care unit, while a 34-year-old mother andher 1-year-old boy were brought in a stable condition, he said.

The driver of the taxi that was hit by the plane and its femalepassenger were also brought to the same hospital, with finger bonefractures, he said.

China’s President Xi Jinping urged authorities to provideassistance to the families of those affected, state broadcasterCCTV said.

Propeller Planes

Established in November 1981, ATR is a partnership betweenAirbus Group NV and Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi, a Finmeccanicacompany, according to ATR’s website. While ATRs initially lostpopularity to new regional jets being introduced in the early1990s, its superior fuel efficiency and related lower operatingcosts have driven a rebirth at the Franco-Italian manufacturer inthe past decade.

ATR has sold close to 1,500 aircraft and has over 180 operatorsin more than 90 countries. The ATR 72 can seat 70 passengers andevery 15 seconds, an ATR turboprop takes off somewhere around theworld, according to the website.

The airline’s shares declined 6.9% to NT$12.15 today, thebiggest drop since October 2011.

Including today’s crash, TransAsia’s ATR 72 planes were involvedin four accidents over the last two decades that killed 73 people,according to AviationSafetyNetwork, which tracks accident data.

--With assistance from Kyunghee Park in Singapore, Janet Ongand Clement Tan in Hong Kong, Debra Mao, Chinmei Sung and Adela Linin Taipei, Andrea Rothman in Toulouse and Bonnie Cao in NewYork.

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