China's Henan Airlines has suspended its flight operations temporarily, after last night's deadly air crash involving an Embraer 190 operated by the airline.

The carrier cancelled all its flights today and is likely to cancel flights tomorrow as well, says an airline official.

"The airline's management is still in discussions with the authorities to see how we should proceed from here," he adds.

Search and rescue operations have recovered the aircraft's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, says the official.

Henan airlines crash
 © PA

The aircraft overshot the runway at Yichun Airport in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang last night while it was landing after a flight from Harbin.

The twin-jet broke apart and caught fire as a result of the impact, and eventually came to a stop in a grassy patch 1.5km away from the runway.

Of the 96 people on board, 42 died in the crash.

The airline official says weather conditions at the airport were foggy last night, but adds that it was not raining.

Yichun Airport, which only began operations last August, has a 2,300m long runway. The airport was constructed in 14 months, and can accommodate Airbus A320s, Boeing 737-700s and other smaller aircraft.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news