To most employees of Air China, the crash of their Boeing 767-200ER yesterday near Pusan in the Republic of Korea came as a devastating shock.

"We were preparing plans for the Labor Day (May 1) holiday traveling peak when we learned the news," said an employee who works with the market planning department of Air China.

"My workmates and I could simply not believe the news at first," said the employee, who gave only his family name Li.

But with the continuing reports the message finally sunk in, he said.

During the past 47 years, generations of Air China employees have been very proud of their fleets' safety record, he said.

Soon after the accident, all the people in the company got together to help deal with the aftermath, or to contact aircraft in flight to make sure they would not be affected by the tragedy.

"I maintained contact with more than 300 crew members in the air to make sure they were safe," said Qiang Xinzhi, an official with the air control department.

His workmate An Junlin was busy urging some 800 staff at the Beijing Capital International Airport to keep smiling on the job.

Reporters began to amass in front of Air China's office building near the airport, hoping for comments from the airline.

A brief news release was distributed to reporters at about 3pm, which promised an investigation into the accident and compensation for the passengers in accord with related aviation laws and regulations.

"Air China is very sorrowful about the accident, and expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the victims," the statement read.

"As soon as I heard the sad news, I knew why I love Air China so much," a person using the pen name of Guo Hang (Air China) said at a website chat room where many employees of Air China also visit and make comments.

Air China President Wang Kaiyuan said when he assumed the post last year the airline's safety record is the result of the unremitting efforts of generations of Air China employees.

But when the accident happened, they knew the relatives of the accident victims were more sorrowful than they were.

A special investigation team headed by Wang Kaiyuan arrived in ROK yesterday evening to deal with issues connected with the accident.

The staff of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) also stopped their routine work.

Minister of CAAC Liu Jianfeng immediately contacted his ROK counterpart and established a special team directing the rescue efforts.

The administration released an urgent notice to domestic airlines, ordering them to conduct overall checks of their aircraft.

Five domestic insurance companies, which cooperated in selling aviation insurance to passengers on the aircraft, were busy preparing to compensate the insured passengers.

Wang Lijuan, secretary of Beijing Insurance Industry Association, said that they had contacted Air China for a passenger list of those on the plane and tried to find out who had bought insurance from their companies.

"We will compensate our customers as soon as possible," she said.

It is routine in the aviation industry for airlines whose aircraft have been involved in crashes to devote much of their time over the ensuing months to aviation safety education.

The crash came just six weeks before the soccer World Cup finals to be co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. As many as 60,000 Chinese are expected to be among the tens of thousands of soccer fans from around the world to visit the two countries.

On April 27, China's national soccer team will play a warm-up match against the Republic of Korea at Inchon, and 20,000 Chinese football fans are expected to go to the game.

Industry analysts said the accident might scare some fans away or prompt them to select other airlines.

The reviews at China's largest website sina.com seemingly confirmed these thoughts. Many people said they were scared by the pictures of the air crash, and worried about flying to Korea to watch the football matches there.

Air China is one of China's largest airlines with a fleet of 69 planes, mostly Boeings.

It is now negotiating with China Southwest Airlines and China Aviation Corporation to form a new air group.

It also plans to list part of its profit-making business on the stock market in Hong Kong and New York next year.

(China Daily April 16, 2002)