PEKING -- A Chinese jetliner on a popular tourist run from Canton to Guilin crashed in a mountainous region of southern China, killing all 112 people aboard including two Americans, Chinese officials said Tuesday.
It was the worst crash of a Chinese domestic airliner on record, officials said.
The U.S. Consulate in Canton quoted officials of the state-run domestic airline CAAC as saying two American tourists were among the dead. Their names were withheld pending notification of their families.
Confirming the crash more than 24 hours after it occurred, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said there were no survivors among the 104 passengers and eight crew members on board the British-made, three-engine Trident jet.
Unconfirmed reports said 50 residents of Hong Kong were also among the passengers.
It was China's first known major air disaster in three years and the worst that China has ever confirmed.
Xinhua said the jet crashed at 4:44 p.m. Monday, 27 miles from the city of Guilin, whose scenic limestone mountains are a popular tourist attraction.
The jet, CAAC Flight 3303, had taken off from Canton, 225 miles southwest of Guilin, 34 minutes earlier. Controllers at Canton's Baiyun Airport lost contact with the jet shortly before the crash.
Xinhua said rescuers had arrived at the crash site in Guangxi province and airline and provincial government officials were investigating the cause of the crash. It gave no further details.
The Canton-Guilin route is a popular tourist run and foreign visitors usually make up the bulk of passengers on the frequent flights.
Guilin is famed for the majestic limestone cliffs that encirle it - and making landing approaches hazardous.
A Canton airport official said it was raining lightly when the plane left Baiyun Airport.
Chinese officials earlier reported the plane missing but waited more than 24 hours to confirm the crash.
Until Monday, the last known air disaster in China took place on March 14, 1979, when an Air Force Trident crashed after takeoff from Peking and slammed into a factory near the capital, killing 44 people
