Beijing:
A Chinese passenger jet broke apart as it approached a fog-shroudedrunway in the country's northeast and burst into flames as it hit theground on Tuesday, killing 43 people and injuring 53 others, statemedia said.
The Henan Airlines plane with 91 passengers and five crew crashed in agrassy area near the Lindu airport on the outskirts of Yichun, a cityof about one million people in Heilongjiang province, the official
Xinhua News Agency said.
Xinhua quoted Hua Jingwei, an Yichun publicity official, as saying thatsome passengers were thrown from the cabin before the broken plane hitthe ground.
The Brazilian-made Embraer E-190 jet had taken off from Heilongjiang'scapital of Harbin shortly before 9 p.m. (1300 GMT) and crashed a littlemore than an hour later, Xinhua said.
China Central Television showed firefighters dousing the burning planewith hoses and later digging through the wreckage of the jet.
CCTV broadcast video of ambulances rushing the injured to hospital.
Xinhua said 43 bodies were recovered within hours of the disaster and 53 people were hospitalised, most with broken bones.
One man told local television that he felt an enormous jolt, followed by several smaller ones before the plane crashed.
"The plane was descending, suddenly I felt a big jolt, and after 4 or 5or 6 strong jolts the luggage fell down from the luggage rack," he said.
Henan Airlines is based in the central Chinese province of the samename and flies smaller regional jets, mainly on routes in north andnortheast China.
Previously known as Kunpeng Airlines, the carrier was relaunched as Henan Airlines earlier this year.
Henan Airlines and many other regional Chinese airlines flying shorterroutes have struggled in the past few years, losing passengers tohigh-speed railroad lines that China has aggressively expanded.