QI Quanjun lay on a hospital bed with a bandaged face and tubes tucked around his body.

The captain of the Henan Airlines jet that crashed on Tuesday night survived with serious injuries.

But he was unable to talk sense when Xinhua reporters met him in a hospital in Yichun yesterday morning.

He said he couldn't remember anything when asked whether he had made an emergencylanding.

The city's top official Xu Zhaojun said earlier yesterday that the captain had talked with air traffic controllers on the ground.

"He said he could see lights on the runway, and was ready for landing," said Xu, quoting airport authorities.

Several survivors remembered the plane touched the ground before it arrived at the airport. "I looked out and couldn't see anything - it was pitch dark and there was no light," said Xue Xilai, a survivor who was sitting in the 10th row, close to the emergency exit.

Investigators said the plane wreckage was about 2 kilometers from the runway.

Experts were still decoding the black boxes, hoping to find clues into the cause of the accident.

Forty-two people died in the crash, and 54 survived.

Among the survivors was eight-year-old Ji Yifan.

"Someone dragged me to the emergency exit door and threw me out before I realized what was going on."

The evacuation slide, which was also on fire, broke just as Ji was sliding down. "I fell to the ground. Again someone dragged me aside," he said in his hospital bed, bandaged on his right cheek and with bruises on his face, neck and arms.

• unable [ʌn´eibəl] a.不能的；无能为力的 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• traffic [´træfik] n.交通，运输 (初中英语单词)
• emergency [i´mə:dʒənsi] n.事变；紧急关头 (高中英语单词)
• landing [´lændiŋ] n.登陆；降落；楼梯平台 (英语六级单词)
• survivor [sə´vaivə] n.未死的人；残存者 (英语六级单词)