BEIJING, (Reuters) – A passenger plane overshot a runway on landing at a new airport in northeast China late yesterday, bursting into flames and killing 43 people in the nation’s worst air disaster in years.
The accident will be a jolt for China’s fast-growing air sector, which has escaped disaster recently thanks to stricter safety rules and relatively young fleets. Xinhua said Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang, the most senior official overseeing safety issues, was headed to the scene of the accident.
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.
Yichun has a small domestic airport which only opened last year, and is one of an increasing number of airports built in remote parts of China to help boost economic development.
The bodies of 43 people killed in the accident had already been found at the site, city official Jin Yi told the China News Service. Chinese state television put the official death toll at 42.
The other 53 people on board “have all been taken to hospital for treatment, and at present none is in danger of loss of life,” the report said, citing Jin. Their injuries included burns, cuts and broken limbs.
The Communist Party chief of Yichun, Xu Zhaojun, told Xinhua that the crew of the plane had reporting nothing amiss before the attempted landing.
“The airplane personnel contacted the ground staff to say they could see the landing lights and requested a normal landing,” Xinhua cited Xu as saying.
By daylight police had sealed off the scene of twisted and burnt wreckage and the bodies of the dead were wrapped in body bags, waiting to be taken to a morgue, said Xinhua.
There were 91 passengers, including five children, as well five crew members on board the ERJ-190, built by Brazil’s Embraer, said the China News Service.
