LEXINGTON, Kentucky: An airliner carrying 50 people crashed in a field and caught fire shortly after taking off in light rain yesterday morning.

Authorities said there were "significant fatalities" and only one person was known to have survived.

The survivor, believed to be a crew member, was rushed to hospital in a critical condition.

Comair Flight 5191, a CRJ-200 regional jet with 47 passengers and three crew members, crashed just after 6 am (1007 GMT) after taking off for Atlanta, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

There was no immediate word on what caused the crash in a field about 1.6 kilometres from Blue Grass Airport. The plane was largely intact afterward, but there was a fire following the impact, police said.

"We have no indication at all that this has anything to do with terrorism," said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown.

The crash marks the end of what has been called the "safest period in aviation history" in the United States.

The University of Kentucky hospital is treating one survivor spokesman Jay Blanton said. No other survivors have been brought to the hospital, he added.

Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said the passengers and crew appeared to still be on the plane and the deaths were caused either by the impact or the "hot fire" on board.

A temporary morgue was being set up at the scene and the bodies will be brought to the state medical examiner's office in Frankfort, Kentucky, Ginn said.

He added that both flight recorders have been found.

Investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were en route to the scene, said Brown.

The airport closed for three hours after the crash, but reopened by 9 am (1300 GMT).

Chaplains at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport were meeting with family members waiting for their loved ones at the airport, said the Rev Harold Boyce, an airport chaplain.

Comair is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines based in the Cincinnati suburb of Erlanger, Kentucky.

The Bombardier Canadair CRJ-100 is a twin-engine aircraft that can carry up to 50 passengers, according to Delta's Web site.

There has not been a major crash in the United States since November 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 plunged into a residential neighbourhood in the Queens borough of New York City, killing 265 people, including five on the ground.

Source: China Daily/agencies