Asia-Pacific

Embraer to help investigate Chinese air crash

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-25 10:41

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil's aerospace conglomerate Embraer, producer of a passenger plane that crashed in northeast China late Tuesday, said it is sending a team of specialists to the crash site to help investigate the accident.

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The team is already on its way to China, the company said in a brief statement on Tuesday.

The company also "extends its profound condolences and wishes for recovery to the families and friends of those lost or injured in the accident", it said.

The ERJ-190 jet of China's Henan Airlines carrying 96 people, crashed near the runway of Lindu airport of Yichun, Heilongjiang Province, at 9:36 pm local time Tuesday, some 40 minutes after it took off from the provincial capital Harbin.

42 people were confirmed dead while the remaining 54 have been rescued and sent to hospitals. It's not immediately known how many are in critical conditions.

There is no official account of what happened during the landing and the investigation into the cause of the crash has not yet concluded.