Survivors of a plane crash in northeast China are giving harrowing accounts of their escape from the burning wreckage.
The survivors, interviewed from hospital beds Wednesday, described a series of powerful jolts as their airliner overshot a runway on landing and broke apart.
Two survivors told state media how they crawled through the smoke-filled fuselage until they found holes where they could jump to safety.
A total of 42 people died and 54 survived when the Henan Airlines plane crashed in a fog on Tuesday evening at Yichun City in Heilongjiang province, about an hour after taking off from Harbin city.
The pilot is alive, but too seriously injured to talk to authorities, and the cause of the crash remains unknown.
However Chinese media say that another airline canceled night flights at the airport after determining they were too dangerous. The lightly used facility was completed last year.
Xinhua news reported that investigators have recovered the plane's "black box" flight data recorders.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang visited some of the injured in hospitals on Wednesday.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
