|
Rescue operation atthe site of an air crash killing all 53 people aboard a commuter plane and one more on the ground on Sunday morning was declared conclusion Tuesday.
A 50-seat short-haul jet CRJ-200, with 47 passengers, including17 locals, and six crew members aboard, left Baotou in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for east China metropolis Shanghai at 8:21 a.m. Sunday, but crashed into a lake of the Nanhai Park shortlyafter it took off. The flight was operated by the Yunnan branch of China Eastern Airlines.
All of the people aboard, together with one old man on the ground, were killed. The remains of 54 victims, including one fromIndonesia, have been found.
Apart from the flight data recorders, also known as "black boxes", right wing and left landing gear, most of the wreckage of the ill-fated plane have been found and dragged ashore.
However, search for the black boxes was halted temporarily as asudden drop in the temperature has posed difficulty to the salvageon the lake. Several salvage experts from the Chinese Ministry of Communications arrived in Baotou Monday night to join the salvage efforts.
Even more experts of flight and airworthiness keep arriving in Baotou from other parts of the country to help investigate the aircrash.
Some 300 relatives of the victims killed in the air crash have rushed to Baotou and are properly accommodated, and the relatives of one passenger traveling with Indonesian passport are also on their way to Baotou.
Wang Xianzheng, leader of the investigative group for the air crash and also director of the State Administration for Production Safety, assured relatives of the victims that they would be dealt with in a sincere way but it would take some time for rescue workers to identify the remains of those killed in the tragedy.
Wang Changshun, deputy director of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, urged China Eastern Airlines to do a good job of safety and to ground all CRJ planes in service for full checkups and to handle well the aftermath of the air crash.
(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2004)
|
