China plane crash leaves 43 dead [VIDEO]

The Henan Airlines plane with 91 passengers and five crew crashed in a grassy area near the Lindu airport on the outskirts of Yichun, in Heilongjiang province, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua quoted Hua Jingwei, a Yichun publicity official, as saying that some passengers were thrown from the cabin before the broken plane hit the ground.

The Brazilian-made plane had taken off from Heilongjiang's capital of Harbin shortly before 9pm local time and crashed a little more than an hour later, Xinhua said. China Central Television showed firefighters dousing the burning plane with hoses and later digging through the wreckage of the jet.

Xinhua said 43 bodies were recovered within hours of the disaster and 53 people were taken to hospital, most with broken bones. Wang Xuemei, vice-mayor of Yichun, told CCTV that three survivors were in critical condition but he gave no more details.