CIS chartered cargo flights banned
By Cao Desheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-05-31 07:47

China's top civil aviation authority has banned chartered cargo planes from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) from landing at four airports.

The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) made the announcement on Friday, saying the move aims to retain the safety of the air cargo business.

The CIS businesses will be allowed to resume after their qualifications are checked in accordance with the international civil aviation convention, the CAAC sources said.

The landing suspension comes in the wake of accidents involving chartered cargo planes from some CIS members, the CAAC said.

Two weeks ago, an Azerbaijani cargo plane crashed near the Urumqi International Airport in the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China's northwest, killing all seven crew members.

The tragedy occurred while the plane was being chartered to fly from Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi Province, to Baku of Azerbaijan via Urumqi.

Investigations into the wrecked IL-76 cargo plane have ruled out sabotage and explosions, according to CAAC sources.

Chartered cargo flights between the CIS and the Chinese mainland are usually undertaken by medium or small CIS carriers, while the ground services are offered by airports in Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan and Hohhot in China's north.

Statistics from CAAC reveal that in the past 10 years, the peak handling capacity of CIS carriers at the four airports was about 120,000 tons via 5,840 flights, covering more than 75 per cent of the airports' total handling capacity.

In an unrelated case, salvage efforts for wreckage of a South African plane - which crashed in Dongting Lake in Hunan Province on Friday - have ended, said a South African Embassy official, who arrived at the scene yesterday.

He said the body of the 35-year-old pilot, Alan Honeyborne, will be held at a local hospital until his parents arrive to pay their last respects. The body will then be cremated nearby.

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