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SCMP Reporter

The deaths of 42 people in  Tuesday night's air crash were the first involving a Brazilian-built Embraer E190 airliner in six years of commercial operation.
Fifty-four other people on board were injured when the Henan Airlines twin-engined aircraft crashed before reaching the airport runway at the city of Yichun . Seven people remain in a critical condition. 
Powered by two General Electric engines, the Embraer E190 is a commercially popular regional jet designed for medium- and short-haul routes. It measures 36 metres long and can carry up to 122 people. 
More than 200 of the aircraft are in service in 35 countries including the United States, Japan, Australia, Panama, Kenya and Israel;  buyers have included big airlines, such as Air Canada, but most are regional carriers. 
Tianjin Airlines and Henan Airlines  are the only mainland firms using Embraer E190s. Four of the jets remain in Henan's fleet, but all flights have been suspended. It is not known how many are in use by Tianjin Airlines.
Luo Jie, a spokesman for Embraer China, said the company's engineers and specialists were working with mainland authorities at the crash scene to investigate the cause of the accident.
An official in charge of aircraft certification at the General Administration of Civil Aviation  said the incident might delay the delivery of the ARJ21,  China's own regional jet, which was undergoing test flights and also used GE engines. 'We don't know yet what has caused the accident. If it's anything to do with the aircraft, the ARJ 21 may have to face more scrutiny before going into service,' he said.
However, Yin Xiufeng, a spokesman for the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, the maker of the ARJ21, said his firm was not affiliated to Embraer and the ARJ21 had nothing in common with the E190. 'They are two entirely different aircraft. We have no worries.'
It took two years to investigate the last fatal air crash on the mainland, which also involved an aircraft with a good safety record. A China Eastern Airlines Bombardier CRJ200 regional jet crashed soon after take-off from Baotou  Airport, in November 2004, killing all 55 people on board. Investigators found that a thick coating of ice that formed on its wings led to it stalling as soon as it left the runway. They ruled that human error was to blame; no one involved was sacked.



Brazilian-built regional jet operates in 35 nations