Chinese plane crashes kill 22

Two military planes crashed in northern China, killing as many as 22 people, including six family members in a house hit by debris, doctors said today.

Two military planes crashed in northern China, killing as many as 22 people, including six family members in a house hit by debris, doctors said today.

The planes crashed on January 4 in Xianrenzhuang, a farm town near the city of Kaifeng in Henan province, the doctors said. The area is 600 miles southwest of Beijing, the capital.

Sixteen people aboard the planes were killed, said a doctor at Kaifeng County No 115 Military Hospital. Officials said the aircraft did not collide.

One plane hit the house of a family named Liu, killing the mother, all four grandparents and another relative, said a doctor at the Xianrenzhuang Clinic. A doctor said two other people were injured.

The father of the family, Liu Wenjun, was hospitalized, Zhao said.

The second plane landed in a field, Gao said. Details on the planes and the crash were not immediately available.

A paratrooper division is based in Kaifeng. China's military rarely publicizes accidents. The Defense Ministry declined to comment.