Crashed Chinese plane’s pilot alive, but unable to talk

BEIJING - The pilot of a passenger plane that crashed in China’s Heilongjiang Province, killing 42 people and injuring 44 others on Tuesday, is reportedly alive but unable to talk.

Doctors have claimed that Qi Quanjun understands questions being asked of him, but is unable to talk mainly because of his face injuries. He is said to be is out of danger, a Xinhua report said.

The injured are being treated at four medical institutes in Yichun.

The ERJ-190 jet, manufactured by the Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer with maximum passenger capacity of 108, crashed near the runaway of Lindu airport of Yichun lete Tuesday, about 40 minutes after taking off from provincial capital Harbin.

Lindu Airport is located in a forest some nine km away from downtown Yichun.

An investigation is on to discover the cause of the crash.

China had kept a remarkable air travel safety record of about 69 months without accidents before the Yichun city crash, CAAC statistics revealed.

Over five years ago, a CRJ-200 jet, owned by China Eastern Airlines, crashed shortly after take-off into a park in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, killing all 53 people on board and two others on the ground.(ANI)