Forty-eight people have been rescued after a plane with 91 on board crashed while landing at an airport in north-east China, according to reports on state television.
The fate of the remaining passengers was unclear. The official Xinhua news agency said the Henan Airlines plane overshot the runway and burst into flames in Yichun, Heilongjiang province. More than 20 people were taken to hospital, Xinhua said.
A China Central Television reporter at the scene did not say what had happened to the others on the plane. Sun Bangnan, deputy director of the Heilonjiang public security department, was quoted by CCTV as saying 48 people had been rescued and that the fire had been put out.
The plane took off from Heilongjiang’s capital, Harbin, and crashed a little more than an hour later.
Henan Airlines is based in the central Chinese province of Henan and flies smaller regional jets, mainly on routes in north and north-east China. Previously known as Kunpeng Airlines, the carrier was rebranded this year.
Henan Airlines and many other regional Chinese airlines flying shorter routes have struggled in the last few years, losing passengers to high-speed rail links that China has aggressively expanded.
