ABC Reports: 78 Killed in Taiwan Air CrashTaiwan aviation officials have recovered all the bodies from the wreckage of a Singapore Airlines jumbo which crashed in Taipei last night.They say there are 78 dead, 85 people in hospital and 16 who escaped injury, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports. The BBC reports investigators have discovered a wheel which does not belong to the plane. Accident investigators found the tyre near the scene at Taiwan's Taoyuan Airport,according to an airline official. It is not clear where it came from. The pilot who survived reported he had hit an object on the runway as he was gathering speed for takeoff. If he did, then this disaster as disturbing echoes of the crash of an Air France concorde in Paris earlier this year. The Singapore Airlines jumbo jet bound for Los Angeles, plunged to the ground just seconds after taking off. It broke into pieces and was engulfed in flames. Rescue workers battled strong winds and heavy rain to retrieve the bodies from the wreckage. The captain, who reported hitting an object on take off, was identified as 48-year-old C K Foong, a Malaysian with 11,235 hours flying experience. The passengers included 55 from Taiwan, 47 from the United States, 11 Singaporeans and Indians, eight Malaysians, five Indonesians, four Mexicans and four from Britain, two from New Zealand, Thailand, and Vietnam, and one from Australia, Canada, Cambodia, Germany, Japan, the Philippines, Ireland and the Canary Islands. |
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