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China has bought two helicopters from the Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. of the United States for rescue operations at sea.
Sources with the Ministry of Communications said Tuesday the salvage helicopters are of the latest models produced by Sikorsky, and they will be stationed at a special airport in Shanghai's Pudong district.
The helicopters, with the maximum cruising speed of 155 nautical miles per hour, is able to carry 12 persons and search for people within a radius of 100 nautical miles.
They will be piloted by the Shanghai Salvage Air Fleet. The Ministry of Communications has employed experts to train the pilots, who are expected to carry out their mission in daytime after one year, and at night in five to eight years' time.
China has a coastline of 18,000 kilometers.
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2002)
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