Suspect arrested for phone threats against flights

A man accused of making threats that led to the grounding of five flights on Wednesday has been detained, Shenzhen authorities said.

The suspect, identified only as Wang, from Tongliao city in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was taken into custody in a dawn raid on Thursday.

He is accused of fabricating and transmitting false terror information.

Wang, a 26-year-old man, has confessed to making the threats over the telephone on Wednesday morning, which resulted in flight delays and emergency landings, police said.

The five flights, which were all bound for Shenzhen, Guangdong province, were operated by China Eastern Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines. The flights were postponed or made emergency landings on Wednesday morning after they received the threats.

If convicted, the suspect faces up to 15 years in prison, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

"Making hoax threats is a criminal offence and we should severely crack down on it, and the strike requires joint effort from the administration as well as judicial department," Li Jiaxiang, director of the CAAC, said on Thursday at the 2013 China Civil Aviation Development Forum.

However, Li said the air defense security measures of the civil aviation in China are capable of guaranteeing air travel.

The first call claiming there was an explosive device on Shenzhen Airline’s Flight ZH9243 from Xi’an in Shaanxi province came in at 7:40 am, resulting in an emergency landing in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and all passengers were evacuated.

Within two hours, four other flights also received threats but they were all hoaxes.

Airports aid economic development

Li Jiaxiang, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, doesn’t share the doubt over the acceleration of airport construction in China and the financial deficits of many airports nationwide.

"The role of airports is significant to regional economic growth," Li said. "Despite the money that many small airports continue to lose, the civil aviation is of national strategic importance."

In terms of the amount of airports per square kilometer, Li said China lags far behind many other major countries, including the United States, Japan, India and many European countries.

Last year, 134 airports nationwide witnessed a combined loss of 2.9 billion yuan ($472 million).

However, Li said the airports have boosted the gross national product by at least 3 trillion yuan.