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Your support makes all the difference.An China Airlines passenger jet flying from Taipei to Hong Kong crashed today in the Taiwan Strai. All 225 people on board are feared dead
The Boeing 747-200 took off in clear weather from Taipei's international airport and was reported missing about 3:30 pm (07.30 GMT), about 50 minutes after takeoff. The plane went down near the Penghu island group, about 30 miles off Taiwan's western coast.
Chang Liang-shih, vice president of China Airlines, told reporters that seven bodies were recovered and about 100 others were spotted floating. No survivors were immediately found.
The cause of the crash was unknown, but a China Airlines official said that the plane was 22 years old. The airline had already sold the jet to Oriental Thai Airways and planned to deliver it next month.
The airline said the plane underwent a major overhaul last year and its age should not have been a problem.
There were suspicions that the plane might have exploded because farmers in the west coast county of Changhua, near the plane's flight path, found scraps of airline magazines, immigration forms and other papers with China Airlines stickers or labels on them. TVBS cable news showed officials wading into rice fields with flashlights collecting the bits of paper and putting them in plastic bags.
The jet was carrying 206 passengers and 19 crew, said Wang Cheng-yu, an official with China Airlines, Taiwan's biggest carrier. Most of the passengers were Taiwanese, but the passenger list also included one Singaporean, five people from Hong Kong and a Swiss citizen.
Kay Yong, managing director of Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council, told reporters that the pilots sent no distress signals before the control tower reported the plane disappeared off radar screens.
The plane was flying at 35,000 feet when it went missing. The Boeing 747-200, delivered in 1979, was the last plane of its kind in the airline's fleet.
El-Hinn Ibrahim, who had two sisters-in-law and one brother-in-law on the flight, said he was angry that the old plane was still being used.
"Why did they put this old plane in service?" he asked. "Did they want people to die?"
Due to a series of crashes in the 1990s, China Airlines used to be considered one of the world's most dangerous air carriers. But in recent years, the airline has reshuffled its board and has put a greater emphasis on safety.
David Fei, the general manager for China Airlines in Hong Kong, said, "We have already tried our best to improve our safety record. The safety record has already been our top priority."
The airline has had 12 fatal accidents since 1969. The last fatal China Airlines accident was in 1999 when a jetliner flipped over and burst into flames during a crash landing in Hong Kong, killing three people.
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