BEIJING – A Chinese passenger jet overshot a fog-shrouded runway in the country’s northeast and burst into flames, killing 42 people and injuring 49 others, state media said.
The Henan Airlines plane with 91 passengers and crew crashed in Heilongjiang province’s Yichun city, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China Central Television quoted Sun Bangnan, deputy director of the Heilonjiang Public Security Department, as saying that 42 bodies had been recovered and that 49 people were rescued and taken to local hosptials.
Wang Xuemei, vice mayor of Yichun, told CCTV that three of them were in critical condition but gave no details.
The plane, which Xinhua said was Brazilian-made Embraer E-190 jet, had taken off from Heilongjiang’s capital of Harbin shortly before 9 p.m. local time and crashed in heavy fog during landing at the Lindu airport a little more than an hour later.
An official surnamed Qi at the Yichun No. 1 People’s Hospital said 30 people had been brought there for treatment, with most suffering broken bones.
A man who would only give his surname, Wang, at the Yichun Rehabilitation Hospital, which has burn specialists on site, said 10 survivors were transferred there with burn injuries. (AP)
