At least 42 people have been killed after a passenger plane crash-landed in the north-eastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, state media report.
The Henan Airlines aircraft, with 91 people on board, burst into flames after overshooting the runway at Yichun City’s airport at 2136 (1336 GMT).
Police in Heilongjiang told Chinese state TV that three of the 49 survivors were in a critical condition.
The Embraer ERJ-190 had taken off from the provincial capital Harbin at 2051.
Among those on board were five crew members and five children, officials from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) told the Xinhua news agency.
Henan Airlines earlier told Xinhua that the plane was carrying 96 people.
Sun Bangnan, the deputy director of Heilongjiang’s public security department, said the majority of those rescued had not suffered life-threatening injuries.
Unconfirmed reports said Yichun City’s Lindu airport had been shrouded in heavy fog at the time of the crash.
Henan Airlines operates five Embraer ERJ-190 passenger planes
A 20-strong team of CAAC officials and technicians have reportedly already left for Yichun City to begin an investigation.
Lindu airport is a small domestic facility that opened only last year.
Henan Airlines is a joint venture between Shenzhen Airlines of China and Mesa Air Group of the US, and is based in Henan province. It was previously known as Kunpeng Airlines.
The BBC’s Martin Patience in Beijing says China has seen a rapid expansion in its domestic airlines in recent years and generally they have a good safety record.
The last serious air accident was in 2004, when a passenger plane crashed into a frozen lake near the northern city of Baotou, killing all 53 people on board. Two people on the ground also died.
Landing prematurely caused China plane crash: Initial probe
The ill-fated Chinese airliner may have crashed due to “landing prematurely” in the woods, 2km ahead of the runway, in the northeast city of Yichun in remote Heilongjiang province, according to preliminary investigations.
The investigations revealed that the plane broke apart while “landing prematurely”, throwing out some of the passengers before bursting into flames and exploding. Eight victims were found 20 to 30 meters from the plane’s wreckage in a muddy field.
The plane landed about 2km short of the runway, outside the barbed-wire enclosed Lindu airport in Yichun, state-run China Daily reported, contradicting the earlier version that the plane overshot the runway.
Following the crash, the Henan Airlines which operated the ill-fated flight has grounded all flights for the next three days.
Meanwhile, the airport was opened today with the first landing 40 hours after the deadly crash in China in nearly six years. An Airbus 320 carrying some of the relatives of the victims landed at Lindu Airport in Yichun, official media reported.
The airport was shutdown after the Brazil-made ERJ-190 turbine jet of Henan Airlines crashed while landing at the Lindu Airport, located in forest-covered mountain valley, which was opened few months ago. The plane’s two “black boxes” were recovered yesterday.
An official probe began yesterday with a directive to all domestic airlines to overhaul safety measures. The state council, or China’s cabinet, has set up a special work group to probe the cause of the crash.
Three of five children injured in the accident were in critical condition. “Four children suffered from airway burns and three were in critical condition. The next 48 hours are crucial,” said Wang Yongchen, deputy chief of First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University.
Fifteen passengers severely injured in the disaster that killed 42 were airlifted yesterday from local hospitals of the crash site, Yichun, to the provincial capital Harbin.
The plane’s captain, Qi Quanjun, survived and was in hospital, though he was unable to talk due to severe facial injuries, doctors said. A cabin attendant survived but the plane’s co-pilot and two other attendants were killed. Most of the casualties were found at the back of the aircraft. The injured suffered mainly from burns, cuts and broken limbs.
Experts from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) have ruled out sabotage. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday called for all-out efforts to save the injured passengers.
They also ordered a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident as well as thorough inspections within the civil aviation system to eliminate any safety risks.
Henan Airlines also sacked its general manager Li Qiang.
