A China Airlines 747, Flight #CI611, has crashed.

Current reports indicate that it carried 225 people... comprising 206 passengers and 19 crew-members. Last reports form the crash site, in the waters off Taiwan, leaves little hope of finding any survivors. The aircraft was a Boeing 747-200, registration number B18255. Delivered in 1979, the aircraft was 22 years old.
The aircraft departed Taiwan's CKS airport at 1450 and was scheduled to land in Hong Kong at 1645. The aircraft lost contact when approaching the island of Penghu (a group of islands off Taiwan’s western coast). Sources indicate that there were no reports of trouble from the cockpit crew prior to the accident and that the Boeing disappeared from radar screens about 20 minutes after take-off. Weather was reported to be "clear."
The specter of a mid-air break-up or explosion has been promulgated by TV footage showing farmers in the western coastal county of Changhua, (about 47 miles from the crash site), holding up bits of foam padding, baggage tags, and magazine pages bearing the China Airline's logo.
China Airlines reports that "There were 19 crew members and 206 passengers including 3 infants on board the flight. In the passenger list, there were 189 Taiwanese passengers, 14 Hong Kong or Macau Chinese, 2 Singaporean and 1 European.
The captain of the flight was Mr. Ching-Fong Yi with 6128 flight hours. The co-pilot was Mr. Yea Shyong Shieh with 6244 flight hours and flight engineer Mr. Sen Kuo Chao with 18024 flight hours. Delivered in 1979, the aircraft is now 22.8 years old and owned by China Airlines. The aircraft completed A check on May 3, B check on April 4 and construction C check on November 25, 2001." China Airlines has a checkered safety record though recent efforts have been made to update the fleet's maintenance and safety practices. China Airlines has been involved in at least nine accidents since 1970 (and the fourth in less than a decade), the last occurring in 1999 when an MD-11 was involved in a landing accident with three fatalities.

FMI: http://www.china-airlines.com/us/