Taipei's mayor hailed the pilot of a crashed TransAsia Airways plane a hero yesterday for narrowly avoiding buildings and ditching the stalled aircraft in a river, likely averting a worse disaster.

At least 32 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 from a downtown Taipei airport on Wednesday. There are 15 known survivors and 11 more unaccounted for, including 10 from the Chinese mainland.

According to Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, 18 of the dead were from the Chinese mainland. Altogether 31 passengers from the mainland, including three children, were onboard the flight which was heading for Kinmen from Taipei. Of the rest, three were injured and 10 are still missing.

The mainland passengers were on trips organized by two travel agencies from Xiamen City in Fujian Province across the Taiwan Strait.

"He really tried everything he could," Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said of the pilot, Liao Chien-tsung, his voice breaking with sobs.

Amateur video recorded by a car dashboard camera showed the plane nose-up as it barely cleared 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. "I was a pilot myself and I'm quite knowledgeable about the immediate reaction needed in this kind of situation."

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.

"He's missed the buildings but it is premature to make an analysis of what happened on this flight. We have to wait for the data from the cockpit voice recorder and flight recorder," said aviation analyst Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of airlineratings.com

The 42-year-old pilot and his co-pilot on the almost-new turboprop ATR 72-600 were among those killed, Taiwan's aviation regulator said.

Taiwan media reported that it appeared Liao had fought desperately to steer his stricken aircraft between apartment blocks and commercial buildings

The head of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, Lin Tyh-ming, said Liao had 4,914 flying hours under his belt and the co-pilot 6,922 hours.

Taiwan media reported that Liao, the son of street vendors, passed exams to join the air force. He later flew for China Airlines, Taiwan's main carrier, before joining TransAsia.

TransAsia's shares closed down 6.9 percent on Wednesday, its biggest percentage decline since late 2011, and were down another 3.3 percent yesterday. The crash was the latest in a string of aviation disasters in Asia in the past 12 months and TransAsia's second in the past seven months.

Lin said the aircraft, powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW127M engines, last underwent maintenance on January 26.

Taiwan's United Daily reported that a flight attendant surnamed Huang told her family she had crawled out of the rear of the plane and found herself in the water. "I thought I was going to die," she said.

It also said a Taiwan couple and their 2-year-old toddler who survived the crash had changed seats from the left hand side of the plane before take-off, a move that likely saved their lives.

The father, whose family name is Lin, asked to change seats to the right side after hearing a noise coming from the wing, the newspaper said.

"He was uncomfortable after he heard the noise," the newspaper said. It did not elaborate.

But it said that the parents found their son floating in the water after the crash. Lin promptly gave him CPR before rescuers arrived.

"Right after Lin escaped the plane, he pulled up his wife, who was just next to him.

He saw his son in the water, with face turning pale and lips turning purple," the newspaper said.

A TransAsia official said the airline would give the families of those killed NT$1.2 million (US$38,198) for funeral expenses and NT$200,000 to each of the injured.

Two people on the ground were also injured, it said.

The Taiwan Aviation Safety Council said it had invited accident investigators from the Chinese mainland to take part in the accident investigation.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said civil aviation authorities on the mainland were to send investigators.

Investigators from France, producer of the aircraft, and from Canada, producer of the engine, have also been invited.

Aviation authorities have been conducting safety checks on power systems of all the island's ATR-72 aircraft.

Dispatchers on duty denied the possibility of a rushed takeoff when interviewed by investigators.

Taipei Songshan Airport canceled 11 flights, all due to be served by ATR-72s, by 11:45am yesterday.

Ma also said that a planned visit by Zhang Zhijun, head of the office, to Kinmen had been delayed, as "both sides need to focus on the aftermath of the accident," Ma said.

Zhang was due to meet Taiwan's mainland affairs chief Wang Yu-chi at the weekend.