President Hu Jintao has extended his condolences to the relatives of those who died in Sunday's air crash in north China.

Early Sunday morning, a two-year-old Bombardier CRJ-200 operated by China Eastern Airlines crashed just seconds after takeoff in the suburbs of Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. All 53 people aboard the Shanghai-bound commuter jet and one person on the ground were killed.

Hu said he felt very grieved when hearing of the accident and expressed his deep and sincere condolences.

"The related authorities must appropriately handle the remaining problems, determine the causes of the accident and prevent further occurrences of similar accidents," said Hu, who was in Santiago, Chile, attending an APEC meeting when he received news of the crash.

The State Council sent a special investigation task force to Baotou on Sunday to organize and oversee operations.

Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice Premier Huang Ju and State Councilor Hua Jianmin also issued instructions to carry out recovery and investigation operations promptly, and directing the Inner Mongolia regional government to cooperate fully with the central government team.

According to Toronto's Globe and Mail, this is the second fatal crash in the past six weeks involving a Canadian Bombardier CRJ-200, following the deaths of two crew members in the US state of Missouri last month. The cause of that accident is still under investigation, but is believed to have resulted from the engines stalling at high altitude.

In another CRJ-200 crash that took place in France in June 2003, the pilot of the aircraft was killed.

China Eastern has reportedly grounded its entire fleet of Bombardier aircraft. Other airlines have so far refrained from following suit, leaving 22 CRJ-200s operating in China.

(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2004)