President Hu Jintao has extended his condolences to the
relatives of those who died in Sunday's air crash in north
China.
Early Sunday morning, a two-year-old Bombardier CRJ-200 operated
by China Eastern Airlines crashed just seconds after takeoff in the
suburbs of Baotou City, Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region. All 53 people aboard the
Shanghai-bound commuter jet and one person on the ground were
killed.
Hu said he felt very grieved when hearing of the accident and
expressed his deep and sincere condolences.
"The related authorities must appropriately handle the remaining
problems, determine the causes of the accident and prevent further
occurrences of similar accidents," said Hu, who was in Santiago,
Chile, attending an APEC meeting when he received news of the
crash.
The State Council sent a special investigation task force to
Baotou on Sunday to organize and oversee operations.
Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice Premier Huang Ju and State Councilor
Hua Jianmin also issued instructions to carry out recovery and
investigation operations promptly, and directing the Inner Mongolia
regional government to cooperate fully with the central government
team.
According to Toronto's Globe and Mail, this is the
second fatal crash in the past six weeks involving a Canadian
Bombardier CRJ-200, following the deaths of two crew members in the
US state of Missouri last month. The cause of that accident is
still under investigation, but is believed to have resulted from
the engines stalling at high altitude.
In another CRJ-200 crash that took place in France in June 2003,
the pilot of the aircraft was killed.
China Eastern has reportedly grounded its entire fleet of
Bombardier aircraft. Other airlines have so far refrained from
following suit, leaving 22 CRJ-200s operating in China.
(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2004)