Military Plane Carrying 40 Goes Down In Eastern Province

Local media outlets report at least five passengers were lost onboard a Chinese military transport that went down in eastern China's Anhui province Saturday afternoon.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, there were 40 people onboard the military transport that crashed in a mountainous region near Yaocun, a village in Anhui's eastern Guangde county. Guangde, 125 miles southwest of Shanghai, encompasses a handful of low mountain villages famous for producing bamboo furniture.

Eyewitnesses told Xinhua that the aircraft exploded in flight. Reports by local villagers said that the fuselage landed on a mountainside, and the tail structure fell into a farm field.

A woman from Yaocun village said she rushed to the scene shortly after the crash and saw thick black smoke billowing up from the wrecked plane.

Villagers rushed the area after hearing an explosion, said a man from Tongkai village, three miles from the crash site.

A local villager named "Tang" said the main body of the plane crashed into a mountain, destroying a section of bamboo forest.

Tang said he went to the mountain site before the area had been cordoned off, and saw two male bodies and numerous body parts strewn about.

The crash scene was described as "chaotic," and little official information about the type of aircraft or an exact number of injured or dead was available Sunday.

The Chinese military flies a diverse mix of transport category aircraft, with most of its planes either originating -- or built in China under license -- from Russia. A China-built Y7 (Antonov An-24) is shown below.

A few American-built C-47s (nee Douglas DC-3) and Boeing 707s are also flying in China's armed forces, according to GlobalSecurity.org.

FMI: www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/aircraft.htm