YICHUN CITY, China—Amlin P.L.C. led insurance coverage of an airliner that crashed Tuesday in northeast China with 91 passengers aboard, a market source said.

China's state-run media reported that at least 42 passengers were killed in the crash. The Henan Airlines flight had departed Harbin on a 224-mile flight to Yichun City, near the Russian border, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The plane landed early, broke in two and caught fire, according to state-run China Central Television.

An insurance market source said Amlin led the insurance coverage under a group insurance program for multiple airlines. Under an unusual arrangement, Marsh Inc. and Willis Group Holdings P.L.C. alternate as the account's broker from year to year, the source said.

The Embraer 190 jet was valued at about $31 million, the source said.

Henan Airlines grounded all flights for a day and, according to state run media, removed its president.

Separately, 11 passengers and three crew members also were killed Tuesday in the crash of an Agni Air flight in Nepal. The twin turboprop went down near Katmandu in thick cloud cover. Four U.S. residents, one from the United Kingdom and one from Japan were among the 14 dead.

Insurance information for that flight was not immediately available.

The Nepal crash marked the 11th fatal accident of a passenger plane this year, with 549 fatalities so far, according to Ascend Worldwide Ltd., a London-based aerospace consultant. Those figures do not include the Henan Airlines crash in China.

There were 609 such fatalities in 2009, according to Ascend.