A chartered aircraft carrying a patient in a critical condition
flew directly from Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong
Province, to Taiwan in the small hours of Monday for medical
treatment.
This is the sixth humanitarian chartered flight since
authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Straits announced they
would allow chartered flights between the mainland and Taiwan in
emergencies in June last year.
The patient, a Taiwanese man surnamed Liao, was diagnosed with
kidney failure complicated by uremia at the hospital attached to
Zhongshan University in Guangzhou.
A doctor and a nurse from the International SOS rescue agency as
well as five relatives escorted Liao back to Taiwan, aboard an
aircraft of Taiwan's TransAsia Airways.
Five similar medical emergency chartered flights across the
strait were approved last year from Guangdong, Hunan, Jilin and
Shanghai to Taiwan, carrying 18 patients.
(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2007)