On the night of 24 August 2010, the Embraer E190 operating the route crashed on approach to Yichun Lindu Airport in fog.

The final investigation report, released in June 2012, concluded that the flight crew failed to observe safety procedures for operations in low visibility.

[2][3] Yichun Lindu Airport, in the Heilongjiang Province, has a runway 2.3 km (1.4 mi) long, 45 m (148 ft) wide, qualified to operate with single-aisle airliners like Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.

[4] On the night of the accident, the airport's meteorological observatory issued bulletins stating the visibility conditions.

At 21:08 the airport issued a special bulletin reporting that visibility was reduced to 2.8 km (1.7 mi) and decreasing rapidly.

[2] 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 (1,440 ft) for a VOR/DME approach to Runway 30.

[2] 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.

[10] This phase of the rescue operation lasted for around eight hours before personnel at the scene began clearing the wreckage the morning after the accident.

[17][18] This move was immediately met with media criticism, which questioned the validity of the administration's interference with Henan Airlines' rights to choice of name.

It was also revealed that the province had offered favorable conditions to attract the airline operator to adopt its current name, and celebrated the renaming afterwards.

[19] On August 31, Henan Airlines announced that it would pay 960,000 yuan (around $140,000 USD) to the relatives of each person killed in the crash.

[21] Both the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the aircraft's manufacturer, Embraer, sent teams of investigators to the crash site.

[10][22] 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.[23] The flight recorders were recovered at the scene and sent to Beijing for analysis.