BEIJING (AFP) - Fifty-four people were killed when a plane crashed into a lake shortly after take-off, apparently after a blast, in China's deadliest aviation disaster in two years, witnesses and state media said.
China Eastern's flight MU-5210 bound for Shanghai plunged into an icy lake in Nanhai Park just seconds after leaving Baotou city in the northern Inner Mongolia region at 8:20 am (0020 GMT), the Xinhua news agency reported.
"There were 47 passengers on board and six crew members, and all died," the civil aviation authority said in a statement posted on its website.
An elderly worker at the park was also killed, his body found near a ticket box destroyed by the plane, according to local government sources cited by Xinhua. Earlier reports said there might have been a second victim on the ground.
The remains of all the passengers and crew and the park employee had been found by early evening, Xinhua said.
One of the 47 passengers on board the plane was identified as an Indonesian national, Xinhua reported on its website.
"Apparently, there was a foreigner on board," a China Eastern staff member told AFP by telephone from Baotou.
Some witnesses said an explosion caused a huge fireball on the plane when it reached a height of 100 meters (330 feet), Xinhua said.
Wang Yongqiang, who lives near the lake, told the agency he heard a loud blast before the plane fell to the ground, disintegrating into burning parts.
State television showed footage of scorched wreckage sticking out of the surface of the lake and rescue workers pulling what appeared to be a body from the water.
It was the deadliest aviation disaster in China since May 2002, when 112 were killed after their plane plunged into the ocean near the northeastern port city of Dalian.
A local reporter said that when he arrived at the scene 30 minutes after the crash, a huge fire was visible on the surface of the lake.
Firefighters were putting out the blaze, while others tried to salvage bodies from the wreckage.
Xinhua said a house near the park was damaged, possibly by falling plane fragments, and that several boats in the lake had been scorched.
"The cause of the crash is still under investigation," an official with China Eastern's office in Baotou told AFP by telephone. "We're gathering passenger information at the moment."
No manifest of passengers' names has been made public, but Xinhua cited reports that one person onboard was chairman of a well-known company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
In Shanghai's Hongqiao airport, a large number of relatives and others had gathered in the arrival hall expecting the plane to land shortly before 11:00 am.
They initially thought the plane was merely delayed and it was only little by little that the awful truth dawned upon them, the China News Service reported.
The civil aviation authority identified the plane as a CRJ-200, a regional jet produced by Canada's Bombardier which in its standard version has capacity to carry 50 passengers.
Reacting to the accident, China Eastern decided to ground all its Bombardier aircraft for the time being, state radio reported.
The crash comes after state media this week reported Chinese airlines had flown more than five million hours without an accident since May 2002 -- the longest safe stretch ever recorded in China.
11/21/2004 - 16:08 GMT - AFP