=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2002/05/07/i= nternational1334EDT0659.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, May 7, 2002 (AP) Chinese domestic airliner crashes with 112 aboard after pilot reports cabin= fire JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer (05-07) 10:34 PDT BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese airliner with 112 people aboard crashed Tuesday into the water off northeastern China after the captain reported a fire in the cabin, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Rescue efforts were under way but there was no immediate information about fatalities or survivors. More than 30 rescue ships were reported on the water headed toward the site of the crash, the second in a month involving a Chinese passenger airliner. The China Northern Airlines jet crashed in the bay just off Dalian, a po= rt city on the northeastern coast, some 280 miles east of Beijing, Xinhua said. The agency said the plane went into Dalian Bay at about 9:40 p.m. after the captain reported a cabin fire. The plane, identified as China Northern Flight 6136, was an MD-82 airliner, Xinhua said, and was carrying 103 passengers and nine crew from Beijing, the Chinese capital, to Dalian, Xinhua said. It took off at 8:37 p.m., and air traffic controllers lost contact with the flight at less than an hour later, at 9.32 p.m., Xinhua said. It said the plane went missing in the sea some 12 miles from Dalian's airport. An operator at China Northern Airlines said there was no one available to discuss the crash. "The leaders have all gone to the scene," she said. She would not give her name, other than Operator No.3. She said there was no word on survivors. "There's no news." Darkness at sea was hindering rescue efforts, Xinhua said. It said most = of those aboard were residents of Dalian, which faces the sea on three sides. On April 15, Air China Flight CA129 from Beijing slammed into a forest-covered mountain in heavy rain and fog while preparing to land at Kimhae Airport near Busan, South Korea's second-largest city. South Korean officials have suggested pilot error was to blame in that crash. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 AP