Chinese authorities released the names Wednesday of 245 passengers, including two Americans, on the planes involved in China's worst air disaster on record, but they shed no light on the events leading up to the crash of the hijacked Boeing 737 plane. The incident, which killed at least 127 people and left 46 seriously injured, is certain to raise questions about China's safety precautions for passengers and its procedures for dealing with hijackers. The plane, hijacked early Tuesday, crashed into two parked jets and then engulfed the planes in a ball of fire at the airport in the southern city of Canton. Airport officials had been prepared well in advance with fire trucks, police and even video photographers. While the official Xinhua news agency reported that the pilot had been given authority to land at any airport, "domestic or otherwise," he apparently made no attempt to meet the hijacker's demands by flying to Taiwan or Hong Kong. Instead, the plane continued on its planned course to Canton, where it crashed as it tried to land. By some accounts, the hijacker realized at the last minute that he had been tricked and that the plane was landing in China rather than abroad, provoking a scuffle in the cockpit that led to the crash. An aviation official refused to comment on the matter, saying the case was "still under investigation." In the past, Chinese planes have been hijacked to Taiwan and Japan. Authorities in Tokyo this year extradited a hijacker back to China, where he was put on trial. The Chinese press has played down the crash, as is often the case with such incidents in China. The People's Daily, the Communist Party official newspaper, carried a short item about the hijacking and crash on page five Wednesday. Wednesday night's issue of the Beijing Evening News, a widely read newspaper in the capital, did not even mention it. The Boeing 737, Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301, was hijacked early Tuesday morning about 20 minutes after it took off from Xiamen, formerly known as Amoy, in southern China's Fujian Province. There are conflicting accounts about whether there were one, two or more hijackers and about whether a bomb exploded upon landing at Baiyun Airport in Canton. Hong Kong television identified a 27-year-old Chinese man who was killed as one of the hijackers and said he had appeared to be confused about where he wanted to go. The list of names released Wednesday afternoon included two Americans, a Swede and a Japanese. So far, no other Westerners are known to have been on the plane, and only one of them, an American, is believed to have died. She is identified as Mary Anna Gilbert, of Alabama. Chinese authorities, however, seemed to have mixed up the names of the American women, putting Erin Lynne Thomas, who survived, on the list of passengers killed. Partly as a result, U.S. consular officials in Canton have not been able to confirm Miss Gilbert's death. China's official news agency said that 90 Chinese nationals were killed, and 37 passengers of non-Chinese nationalities, including an American, believed to be Miss Gilbert, as well as 30 from Taiwan, four from Hong Kong, and two from Macao. Reports in Hong Kong, however, have cast doubt on the accuracy of the passenger lists. At least two Hong Kong residents killed were reportedly not on the list. A U.S. official said the U.S. consulate in Canton offered technical assistance to the Chinese, but so far there has been no response.