Taiwan airliner missing at sea

A Taiwanese airliner carrying more than 200 people is believed to have crashed into the sea during a flight to Hong Kong.

Taiwanese flag carrier China Airlines flight C1611 disappeared from radar screens near the Taiwanese island of Penghu at 0730 GMT, shortly after leaving the capital Taipei, television reports said.

Prime Minister Yu Shyi-kun was quoted as saying that rescue aircraft had spotted life jackets and an oil slick floating near the island.

Military planes and vessels are now scouring the area near where the plane disappeared, officials in Taipei said.

The plane took off from Taipei’s international airport carrying about 200 passengers and 19 crew, Chuang Suo-hang, a government spokesman said.

“It disappeared from the radar. Judging from the situation, it crashed into the sea,” airport spokesman Wei Sheng-chih told the Reuters news agency.

The Boeing 747-400 was bound for Hong Kong, a flight that usually take one and a half hours.

“The cabinet has formed an emergency team to deal with the situation,” cabinet spokesman Mr Chuang said.

The BBC’s Duncan Hewitt in Shanghai said China Airlines has been seeking to improve a poor safety record which has seen several crashes over the past decade, including a major accident at Taipei’s international airport in 1998.

The apparent disappearance of this plane follows two major accidents in the region involving mainland Chinese airlines during the past month.

The Flaps Team