Taipei, Feb. 5 (CNA) In the wake of the tragedy that killed most of those on board TransAsia Airways (復興航空) Flight GE235 Wednesday, one family of three considered themselves fortunate to be counted among the 15 who survived the crash. 
 
 
 
 The fact that none of the three were seriously injured could be attributed to the quick thinking of Lin Ming-wei (林明威), the father, who requested a seating change shortly before takeoff from Taipei's Songshan airport. 
 
 
 
 Lin and his wife Chiang Yu-ying (江郁穎) and two-year-old son Ji-yao (日堯) had been seated to the left of the aisle of the ATR-72 turboprop but he asked to be moved to empty seats on the right and toward the back of the plane. 
 
 
 
 He felt uneasy about the noise he heard when seated on the left side, Lin explained. 
 
 
 
 The move may well have saved his own life and those of his loved ones. Initial reports indicated that the port side of the turboprop plane was seriously damaged when it crashed into Keelung River about three minutes after takeoff late Wednesday morning. 
 
 
 
 
 
 [Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Fire Department] 
 
 
 
 The plane was bound for the offshore island of Kinmen, where the Lins had planned to go on holiday. 
 
 
 
 Of the 58 people on board, including 5 crew members, 31 were confirmed dead and 12 remained missing as of Thursday morning. 
 
 
 
 After the change, Lin was lucky to be seated right next to the place where the fuselage broke up. Immediately after realizing what had happened, Lin scrambled out of the opening and looked for his wife and son to safety, a family friend was quoted by local media as saying. 
 
 
 
 Lin found his boy in the water and applied CPR to resuscitate him. 
 
 
 
 Lin was the only survivor that was not hospitalized, according to Taipei City Hospital. He had hardly any superficial injury and, after a reassuring computed tomography scan, took a taxi to be reunited with his wife and son, who had been sent to another branch of the hospital by rescue workers. 
 
 
 
 Lin's wife suffered multiple fractures and would undergo surgery Thursday. Their son has been in intensive care after taking in water but was said to be conscious and in good spirits. 
 
 
 
 (By Ku Chuan and Jay Chen; click here for the latest on the crash) 
 
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 TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taipei's mayor hailed the pilot of a crashed TransAsia Airways plane a hero on Thursday for narrowly avoiding buildings and ditching the stalled aircraft in a river, likely averting a worse disaster. 
 
 At least 31 people were killed when Flight GE235 lurched between buildings, clipped a taxi and an overpass with one of its wings and crashed upside down into shallow water shortly after take-off on Wednesday. There were 15 known survivors and 12 more unaccounted for. 
 
 "He really tried everything he could," Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said of the pilot, his voice breaking with sobs. 
 
 Amateur video recorded by a car dashboard camera showed the plane nose-up as it barely cleared the buildings close to Taipei's Songshan airport before crashing into the river. 
 
 "The pilot's immediate reaction saved many people," said Chris Lin, brother of one of the survivors. 
 
 Aerospace analysts said it was too early to say whether the pilots intentionally pulled the plane above the buildings, and noted that the crew may have been aiming for the river to reduce casualties. 
 
 A more conclusive picture will emerge only when authorities release details from the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders, which were recovered on Wednesday. 
 
 The pilot and co-pilot of the almost-new turboprop ATR 72-600 were among those killed, Taiwan's aviation regulator said. TransAsia identified the pilot as 42-year-old Liao Chien-tsung. 
 
 Taiwanese media reported that it appeared Liao had fought desperately to steer his stricken aircraft between apartment blocks and commercial buildings. 
 
 IN-DEPTH 
 
 - Reuters ||||| TAIPEI The crew of a twin-propellor TransAsia plane which crashed into a river in Taipei killing 35 people had lost power in one engine but shut down and restarted the other, investigators said on Friday. 
 
 The reason for the pilots' action was unclear but a combined lack of thrust caused the almost-new turboprop ATR 72-600 to stall soon after take-off, Aviation Safety Council officials said after a preliminary study of 'black box' flight recorders. 
 
 The plane, which can fly on one engine, was carrying 58 passengers and crew when it lurched nose-up between buildings, clipped an overpass and a taxi with one of its wings and then crashed upside down into a shallow river on Wednesday. Fifteen people survived. 
 
 The cockpit data and voice recorders showed that the plane warned five times of stalling before the crash in the center of Taipei, according to findings by the council. 
 
 The right engine entered a state called "auto-feather", in which it reduced thrust to the propeller, Thomas Wang, managing director of the council, told a news briefing. 
 
 The flight crew then reduced power to the left engine, turned it off and attempted to restart it, but it did not gain enough thrust. 
 
 There was no word on what may have been going through the pilots' minds or what the instruments may have been telling them, but evidence presented so far will raise questions over whether they accidentally cut the wrong engine. 
 
 "That happens, but it is rare," said Paul Hayes, safety director at British aviation consultancy Ascend Flightglobal. 
 
 In 1989, a British Midlands Boeing 737 jet crashed in central England after the crew shut down the wrong engine. Investigators said unfamiliar vibration and noise contributed to the so-called Kegworth disaster, in which 47 passengers died. 
 
 Taiwan said the TransAsia problems began shortly after the turboprop aircraft left Taipei's downtown Songshan airport. 
 
 "The first engine experienced a problem 37 seconds after take-off at 1,200 feet," Wang said. 
 
 He said the pilot had announced a "flameout", which can occur when fuel supply to an engine is interrupted or when there is faulty combustion, but that there had not been one according to the data. 
 
 "The flight crew stepped on the accelerator of engine 2 (righthand side)... The engine was still operating, but neither engine produced power." 
 
 PILOTS' EFFORT TO SAVE PLANE 
 
 The plane was powered by two PW127M engines made by Pratt & Whitney, part of United Technologies. 
 
 A fuller report on the crash will be available in next 30 days, with a final one expected in the next three to six months. For now, investigators cannot say exactly what caused the crash. 
 
 The pilot, 42-year-old Liao Chien-tsung, has been praised by Taipei's mayor for steering the plane between apartment blocks and commercial buildings before ditching the stalled aircraft in a river. [ID:nL4N0VF1DX} 
 
 The bodies of Liao and his co-pilot were retrieved from the cockpit, with their legs badly broken, investigators said. 
 
 "They were still trying to save this aircraft until the last minute," media quoted unidentified prosecutors involved in the crash investigation as saying. 
 
 Eight people are still missing. Aviation officials have said they have not given up hope of finding them. 
 
 The plane was bound for the Taiwan island of Kinmen. Among those on board were 31 tourists from China, mainly from the southwestern city of Xiamen. 
 
 Taiwan's aviation regulator has ordered TransAsia and Uni Air, a subsidiary of EVA Airways Corp, to conduct engine and fuel system checks on the remaining 22 ATR aircraft they still operate. 
 
 The crash was the latest in a string of Asian air disasters. 
 
 Indonesia has expanded its search for bodies of Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 that crashed into the Java Sea in December, killing all 162 people on board. 
 
 After a lull in search and recovery efforts, more bodies and wreckage have been found in the past few days off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. A total of 96 bodies have been found. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Faith Hung in Taipei, Cindy Silviana in Jakarta, Siva Govindasamy in Singapore and Tim Hepher in Paris; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Robert Birsel and Toby Chopra)
– Lin Ming-wei says he owes his life, and that of his family, to a last-minute decision to switch seats aboard the TransAsia plane that crashed yesterday in Taipei, killing at least 31 people. Just before takeoff, Lin says he heard an odd noise that unsettled him, and he asked for permission to move with his wife and 2-year-old son from the left side of the plane to an empty row of seats on the rear right side, CNN reports. Minutes later, Lin found himself in the plane's wreckage in Keelung River; the family's new seats were next to where the fuselage broke up, allowing him to exit via the opening, Focus Taiwan reports. He escaped unscathed; of 15 survivors, he was the only one who didn't need medical attention. Lin found his son in the river—with no heartbeat. He gave the boy CPR, telling the Liberty Times, per CNN, "He is my only child. I absolutely have to save his life—I can't lose him." The boy and Lin's wife survived and are now in a hospital. Initial reports suggest the left side of the aircraft sustained the most damage—and Lin wasn't the only passenger to feel uneasy. "Shortly after taking off, I felt something was not right," says Huang Chin-shun, 72. "I thought, 'something's wrong with the engine,' because I always take this flight." NBC News reports the plane's pilot and co-pilot, hailed for apparently dodging buildings, were among those killed. Officials say 12 people are still missing.