Henan Airlines Flight 8387
Embraer E190 LR · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error, poor weather
From Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB) to Yichun Lindu Airport (LDS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA10WA087
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Final · State Council accident investigation team… final report, 29 Jun 2012
- Event fatalities
- 44 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 96
- Survivors
- 52
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 52
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Embraer E190 LR
- Flight
- VD8387
- Aircraft type
- Embraer E190
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- B-3130
- Operator
- Henan Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 44
- Route
- From Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB)To Yichun Lindu Airport (LDS)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Henan Airlines Flight 8387 was a domestic flight operated by Henan Airlines from Harbin to Yichun, Heilongjiang. On the night of 24 August 2010, the Embraer E190 operating the route crashed on approach to Yichun Lindu Airport in fog. 44 of the 96 people on board were killed. This was the first hull loss and the first fatal accident involving the Embraer E190 and as of 2026, the deadliest.
The final investigation report, released in June 2012, concluded that the flight crew failed to observe safety procedures for operations in low visibility.
Accident
Flight 8387 departed Harbin Airport at 20:51; at 21:10 the aircraft obtained the weather report from Yichun Airport and they were told the visibility was 2800 m. At 21:16 the crew were alerted to dense fog at the airport and within the next ten minutes they confirmed a decision height of 440 m for a VOR/DME approach to Runway 30. At 21:28:19 the airport controller told the Flight 8387 that although the vertical visibility was okay, the horizontal visibility was low. At 21:28:38 the aircraft overflew the airport and was seen by the airport controller. At 21:33 they completed a procedural turn for the approach; at 21:36 the autopilot was disengaged. At 21:37 the aircraft had descended to the 440 m decision height but the pilot could not see the runway. At 21:38 the aural height warning started; although the crew could not see the runway and had passed the decision height they did not execute a missed approach, and the aircraft hit the ground.
According to Yichun officials' preliminary observations, the aircraft broke apart while it was in the process of landing at around 21:36 local time (13:36 UTC), while the airport was enclosed with fog. The aircraft touched down around 1.5 km short of the runway, then caught fire. The wreckage of the fuselage came to a rest 700 m from the runway. Some passengers escaped through gaps in the fuselage.
Details surrounding the crash were unclear in the immediate aftermath; a local official reported that the aircraft broke in two as it was landing and that passengers were thrown from the aircraft, though some survivors said that it remained intact until it came to rest short of the runway.
Subsequent investigations concluded that the first impact was with trees, 1100 m from the runway threshold, at 21:38:08. Thereafter, the aircraft hit the ground with its main landing gear, 1080 m from the landing runway threshold, running on the ground a distance of 870 m, until the engines hit the ground. This impact ruptured the wing fuel tanks, spilling fuel and causing the fire. The survivors left the aircraft by the door behind the cockpit and through openings in the fuselage. Emergency exits could not be opened, and a large amount of smoke accumulated in the cabin. The pilot, who survived the accident, could not organize nor conduct the passengers' evacuation.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Both the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the aircraft's manufacturer, Embraer, sent teams of investigators to the crash site. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board appointed an accredited representative, as the aircraft's General Electric CF34 engines were made in the U.S. The flight recorders were recovered at the scene and sent to Beijing for analysis.
Early in the investigation, the focus of the investigation were the qualifications of the pilot, as it emerged that upwards of a hundred pilots flying for Shenzhen Airlines, Henan Airlines' parent company, had falsified their claims of flying experience.
Investigators from the State Administration of Work Safety concluded that the captain, on his first flight into Yichun, switched off the autopilot and approached the runway covered by radiation fog despite the fact that a visibility of 2800 m was below the minimum of 3600 m. In addition, the crew descended below minimum descent altitude although visual contact with the runway had not been established.
The crew also failed to initiate a missed approach when the radio altimeter callouts indicated that the airplane was near the ground and the communication and cooperation within the crew was insufficient, despite the known safety risks at that airport.
On December 25, 2014, captain Qi was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the accident. However Qi appealed the decision the next day; his lawyer stated that the sentence was "too harsh" and that Qi "was not the only person responsible for the crash."
Text from the Wikipedia article “Henan Airlines Flight 8387” (revision 1371131056, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On August 24, 2010 at 9:40 PM local time, Henan Airlines flight VD8387 (registration B-3130), an Embraer 190 equipped with General Electric (GE) CF-34 engines, impacted terrain about 1.5 km (0.9 miles) short of runway 30 during approach to Yichun Airport, Yichun, China. Of the 96 passengers and crew on board, there were 42 fatalities, 7 serious injuries, and 47 minor injuries. The airplane was substantially consumed by post-crash fire. The flight originated from the Harbin Taiping International Airport, Harbin, China.
The accident is being investigated by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The NTSB has appointed a U.S. Accredited Representative to assist the investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13 as the State of design and manufacture of the engines.
All requests for information should be directed to:
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) #155 Dongsi Street West, Dongcheng Beijing, China 100710, China
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Henan Airlines Flight 8387
- Article
- Henan Airlines Flight 8387
- Revision
- 1371131056 · 2026-08-24 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q1922654
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA10WA087
- Event ID
- 20100825X10814
- Case number
- DCA10WA087
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Henan Airlines Flight 8387" (page 28518666, revision 1371131056); merged with NTSB case DCA10WA087 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the State Council accident investigation team led by the State Administration of Work Safety (with CAAC and other agencies), People's Republic of China; report published by SAWS, now hosted by the Ministry of Emergency Management final report
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates; matches the State Council accident investigation team led by the State Administration of Work Safety (with CAAC and other agencies), People's Republic of China; report published by SAWS, now hosted by the Ministry of Emergency Management final report
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA10WA087
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the State Council accident investigation team led by the State Administration of Work Safety (with CAAC and other agencies), People's Republic of China; report published by SAWS, now hosted by the Ministry of Emergency Management final report
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Henan Airlines Flight 8387" and NTSB case DCA10WA087, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- Checked against the State Council accident investigation team led by the State Administration of Work Safety (with CAAC and other agencies), People's Republic of China; report published by SAWS, now hosted by the Ministry of Emergency Management final report (2012-06-29) on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, crash-site coordinates, flight number, fatalities, registration, operator, departure, destination and damage. Not checked: place, aircraft type, type of operation and ground fatalities.