A passenger plane crashed in northeast China late today, overshooting the runway and bursting into flames, killing at least 42 of 96 people onboard in what was the nation's worst air disaster for years.
The Henan Airlines plane crashed at 10.10 pm (1410 GMT) in Yichun, a small city in Heilongjiang province, after flying from Harbin, the province's capital, state media said.
Sun Bangnan, a deputy chief of the Heilonjiang police, said 42 bodies of people killed in the accident had already been found at the site where the plane split apart and burst into flames after overshooting the runway of the Yichun airport.
Yichun vice mayor Wang Xuemei told Chinese television news that 49 of the 96 people on board had been taken to hospital, and three were seriously injured. Chinese media reports say there were 91 passengers and five crew members on board.
Chances of finding more survivors appeared scant.
"Because some passengers were thrown out of the cabin when the accident happened, their chances of survival are slim," said the official Xinhua news agency.
The plane was an Embraer 190, said the China News Service.
The accident was a jolt for China's fast-growing air sector, which has escaped disaster for several years thanks to relatively young fleets and stricter safety rules. Air safety officials rushed to the scene.
China's last major civilian aircraft crash was in 2004, when a CRJ200 operated by China Eastern Airlines came down in a frozen lake in northern Inner Mongolia shortly after take-off, killing more than 50 people.
Yichun airport is a small domestic facility which opened only last year, and is one of an increasing number of airports built in remote parts of China to help boost economic development.
Henan Airlines is a small regional carrier controlled by Shenzhen Airlines, which is itself part-owned by Air China. The airline is based in Henan, a province in central China.
It changed its name from Kunpeng Airlines earlier this year and flies only domestic routes using the Brazilian-made Embraer.
Reuters