54 survivors, 42 dead in China plane crash

BEIJING — A Chinese airliner smashed into two pieces while trying to land in heavy fog, leaving at least 42 people dead but 54 survivors in the country's first major air disaster in nearly six years.

The Henan Airlines domestic flight was carrying 96 people when it slammed into the ground on landing in the northeast city of Yichun in remote Heilongjiang province late Tuesday, state media said.

Forty-two people were killed, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC), which reportedly had highlighted past technical problems with the plane involved -- an ERJ-190 jet made by Brazilian company Embraer.

On Wednesday, rescuers were combing through the smouldering wreckage while the survivors -- mainly from the disembodied plane's front cabin -- were being treated in four local hospitals, the Xinhua news agency said.

The plane's captain was among the survivors, but he had severe facial injuries and was unable to talk, Xinhua said.

At Yichun's fog-shrouded airport of Lindu, located in a forest about nine kilometres (five miles) outside the city, rescuers were transferring victims' bodies wrapped in silver bags to funeral homes for identification, it said.

"Families were seen waiting anxiously at an open ground in front of the airport. Men smoked, women wailed," Xinhua reported.

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