Unconfirmed reports said there were at least two hijackers but a Chinese aviation official said one Chinese man was responsible for the hijacking.

The official New China News Agency, in a brief dispatch, asserted that the Government had authorized the hijacked airliner to land at any airport inside or outside of China, so as to safeguard the passengers. The dispatch apparently was intended to refute any speculation that the Government's determination to foil the hijacking led to the disaster.

The plane was apparently trying to land in Canton when it sideswiped an empty Boeing 707. The plane, Xiamen Airlines flight 8301, then slammed into the wing area of a parked Boeing 757 filled with passengers going to Shanghai, witnesses told foreign residents reached in Canton. The hijacked plane flipped over, and the rear of the Shanghai-bound plane exploded into fire, wrapping the aircraft in flames shortly after 9 A.M.

There were conflicting reports about whether the hijackers set off a bomb or whether the plane burst into flames on impact with the Shanghai-bound jet.

"The plane was snapped in half like a match stick," a witness told the foreign resident, both of whom insisted that their names not be used. "All that was left of the fuselage was charred metal. It looked like a crematorium." The New China News Agency, which first reported the incident more than six hours after it occurred, said late Tuesday that 100 people had survived, but it did not indicate how many survived on each of the planes.