Bad Day at the Office

In the world of "holy crap," we have an amazing dashcam footage of the crash of TransAsia flight GE235:

At least 23 people have died after a TransAsia Airways plane crashed into the Keelung River in Taiwan earlier Wednesday.

Another 15 people were reportedly injured in the accident, and 20 are still missing.

Drivers on the road captured the moment the plane crashed into the river. Flying on its side, the aircraft hit a taxi and clipped the bridge with its wing before crashing into the river.

The footage is amazing, but I don't see a cause here.

It's clear that the left wing dropped, probably from a stall. Note that the ATR-72 does not have counter-rotating props, so a wing drop is normal for a stall.

Also, it appears to be descending before the wing drops, even though it was taking off, which is would correspond to the reports that the aircraft had issued a mayday call stating that an engine had flamed out:

The final communication from the pilots to air traffic control was "Mayday, mayday, engine flame out", according to a recording played on local media. The recording was not immediately verified by aviation officials.

I would assume that it was the left engine that had flamed out, and then the aircraft departed.

Here are some screen caps that appears to show that the left engine prop was feathered (pitch altered for minimum drag):



In any case, here is the video: