An Embraer E-190 similar to the aircraft involved. |
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | August 24, 2010 |
| Type | Controlled flight into terrain |
| Site | Lindu Airport (ZYLD) Yichun, Heilongjiang, China[1] |
| Passengers | 91 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Fatalities | 42 |
| Survivors | 54 |
| Aircraft type | Embraer E-190 |
| Operator | Henan Airlines |
| Tail number | B-3130[2] |
| Flight origin | Harbin Taiping Int'l Airport |
| Destination | Yichun Lindu Airport |
Henan Airlines Flight 8387 (VD 8387) was a flight from Harbin Taiping International Airport to the new Yichun Lindu Airport, both located in Heilongjiang province, China. On the night of August 24, 2010 it crashed on approach to Yichun Lindu with 91 passengers and 5 crew members on board.[3] This was the first hull-loss and the first accident with fatalities involving an Embraer E-190.[4]
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According to Yichun officials, the aircraft broke apart while it was in the process of landing at around 2136 local time (1336 UTC), while the airport was enclosed with fog.[1] The aircraft touched down around 1.5 km (0.93 mi) short of the runway, then caught fire.[1][5] The wreckage of the fuselage came to a rest 700m from the runway.[1] Some passengers escaped through gaps in the fuselage of the cabin.[5]
Details surrounding the crash were unclear in the immediate aftermath of the incident; a local official reported that the aircraft broke in two as it was landing, and that passengers were thrown from the aircraft, though some survivors said that it remained intact until it came to a rest away from the runway.[6]
The flight carried a total of 96 people, out of a capacity of 108, of which 91 were passengers and five were crew.[7] Initial reports suggested that 53 people survived the crash, while 43 were found dead at the scene; later reports corrected the death toll to 42 because the body of one victim was torn apart.[7][8][9] Most of the dead were seated in the rear of the aircraft.[7] None of the rescued suffered life-threatening injuries, though all were brought to hospitals.[9][10]
Many passengers were participants of a national conference on human resources and employment, including vice minister Sun Baoshu and other officials of the national Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Two participants from Chengdu were among the fatalities.[11]
The pilot survived the accident, though he sustained heavy facial injuries.[12]
Some survivors said that they escaped through a hole in the front of the plane.[13]
On August 31, Henan Airlines announced that it would pay 960,000 yuan (around $140,000 USD) to the relatives of each person killed in the crash. The payment was required under PRC civil aviation law.[14]
| Nationality | Fatalities | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passengers | Crew | ||
| People's Republic of China | 38 | 3 | 41 |
| Republic of China (Taiwan) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 39 | 3 | 42 |
Crews immediately began searching for survivors, although the efforts were hampered by fog.[7] This phase of the rescue operation lasted for around eight hours before personnel at the scene began clearing the wreckage the morning after the accident.[7]
Henan Airlines cancelled all flights in the days after the incident and fired the airline's general manager. Nationally, Chinese airlines performed increased safety checks in response to the crash.[15]
The Administration for Industry and Commerce of Henan Province announced days after the incident that it had rescinded the enterprise name registration of Henan Airlines, and demanded that the airline operator restore its original name of Kunpeng Airlines. The administration cited as reasons for its decision that the name Henan Airlines had caused public misunderstanding and greatly damaged the image of the province, which holds no stake in the airline operator.[16][17] This move was immediately met with media criticism, which questioned the validity of the administration's interference with Henan Airlines' rights to choice of name. It was also revealed that the province had offered favorable conditions to attract the airline operator to adopt its current name, and celebrated the renaming afterwards.[18]
Both the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the aircraft's manufacturer, Embraer, sent teams of investigators to the crash site.[7][19] The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board appointed an accredited representative, as the aircraft's General Electric CF34 engines were made in the U.S.[20] The flight recorders were recovered at the scene and sent to Beijing for analysis.[1]
Early in the investigation, the qualifications of the pilot were focused on, as it emerged that upwards of a hundred pilots flying for Shenzhen Airlines, Henan Airlines' parent company, had falsified their claims of flying experience.[21]
| External images | |
|---|---|
| Photos of B-3130 at Airliners.net | |