China Hijacking Goes Awry; 120 Die : Disaster: The crew was struggling with two gunmen as the plane landed at Canton. It rammed two other planes.

At least 120 people died today after the crew of a Chinese jetliner refused hijackers’ demands to be flown elsewhere and attempted to land at Canton’s Baiyun Airport.

As the Boeing 737, carrying 94 passengers and a crew of 10, touched down on the runway, the hijackers and crew were struggling in the cockpit, according to survivors. The aircraft careened into two other Chinese planes on the ground, first an empty Boeing 707, then a Boeing 757 loaded with passengers waiting to take off for Shanghai.

The plane with the hijackers on board “burst into flame,” and the Shanghai-bound plane “was destroyed,” the official New China News Agency reported.

“It was just a crematorium,” a Western witness said.

As of nightfall there were 120 known dead, 53 injured and 47 survivors, the news agency said.

There were two hijackers involved, and they were demanding to go to Hong Kong, according to various reports from Canton and Hong Kong.

Even before the landing was attempted, authorities apparently realized there was a risk of disaster. Police had sealed off the airport about half an hour before the 9 a.m. crash, and ambulances and fire trucks had been called to the scene.

The plane, which took off from the Fujian province city of Xiamen, was in the air for slightly more than two hours, the New China News Agency reported. The flight to Canton, which was the aircraft’s scheduled destination, normally takes only 70 minutes. The plane belonged to the Xiamen Airline Co., a subsidiary of China’s state airline CAAC.

The official Chinese news agency asserted that after being notified of the hijacking attempt, Chinese officials authorized the crew to “land at any airport, domestic or otherwise, to ensure the safety of the airliner and the passengers.” No explanation was offered as to why the crew still tried to land at Canton.

At least two American citizens were on the ill-fated plane. Erin Lynne Thomas, of Oklahoma City, was hospitalized in good condition with a broken limb, according to U.S. Embassy spokesman Sheridan Bell in Beijing. Another American woman who had been sitting next to Thomas was missing, Bell said.

Two survivors from the Shanghai-bound plane, a Swedish businessman and a Japanese businessman, said that passengers in the first 14 rows were able to escape but that it appeared all others on the plane perished in the flames.