China plane plunges into icy lake

A passenger plane with more than 50 people on board has crashed into a frozen lake in northern China.
Officials said all those on board – as well as two people on the ground – died in the crash near the city of Baotou in the Inner Mongolia region.

The Shanghai-bound flight plunged into the lake shortly after take-off, apparently after exploding in mid-air, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

It was the first serious air accident in China for more than two years.

The civil aviation authority identified the plane as a CRJ-200, a small commuter jet which normally has capacity to carry 50 passengers.

“The cause of the crash is still under investigation. We’re gathering passenger information at the moment,” an official with China Eastern’s office in Baotou told AFP.

It was the deadliest aviation disaster in China since May 2002, when 112 people died after their plane fell into the ocean near the north-eastern city of Dalian.

State media this week had highlighted the fact that there had been no serious accidents despite the surging volume of air traffic.

Flaming fragments’

The China Eastern plane with 47 passengers and six crew lost contact with the control tower seconds after taking off from the industrial city of Baotou, about 600km (360 miles) west of the capital, Beijing, the news agency said.

The Canadian-built CRJ-200 jet than plunged into Nanhai Park near the airport at about 0820 local time (0020 GMT), the agency said.

It quoted witnesses as saying that the plane “broke into flaming fragments”, destroying a house next to the park and several yachts.

One said he had heard a blast and the plane broke into a huge fireball in the air before plunging into the lake.

Two workers in Nanhai Park were also killed, officials said.

Xinhua said one of the dead was a foreigner, without immediately identifying what nationality.

State television showed footage of scorched wreckage sticking out of the surface of the lake.

Firefighters were cutting through – and had recovered most of the bodies, Xinhua said.

From BBC