TAIPEI, Taiwan — A bank clerk performed CPR on his two-year-old son after finding him lifeless inside the submerged cabin of the crashed TransAsia plane, according to a relative.
Chris Lin said his older brother Lin Ming-wei, 37, managed to free wife Chiang Yu-ying, 34, before frantically searching for baby Lin Jih-yao after the aircraft clipped a bridge and plunged into a river in Taipei, Taiwan.
Lin said the two-year-old boy was not breathing when his father found him after at least three minutes in the water on Wednesday.
"He saved his wife first, let her escape from the cabin first before looking for his son," he said. "When he found him, he had no heartbeat. His lips were turning purple. He had no sign of life. So he immediately did CPR on him. Luckily, he recovered his heartbeat. Then my brother escaped from the cabin together with his son and waited for rescue."
Lin said his nephew was hospitalized with pneumonia, while his sister-in-law underwent surgery for broken bones and his brother escaped with minor injuries. He added that the baby was "very brave" and "really didn't cry."
At least 31 people were killed when the plane went down, while 12 remain unaccounted for.
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— Christie Chen and Matthew Grimson
Matthew Grimson reported from London.