A chartered flight carrying a 71-year-old critically ill Taiwanese man departed from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to Taipei for medical treatment on Thursday afternoon, marking the first emergency direct flight across the Taiwan Straits.

The man, surnamed Chen, was accompanied by two relatives and two doctors on the special plane arranged by the Beijing International SOS Medical Center and the Deer Jet Co. Ltd. under Hainan Airlines.

The flight took off at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday from the Baiyun International Airport of Guangzhou.

"This is the first direct flight to carry out a first aid mission from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan," said He Jingbin, of the Beijing SOS.

Chen had a stroke last Friday when he visited his relatives in Dongguan City of Guangdong, He said.

It only took Beijing SOS and Deer Jet, a business charter operator, three days to get approval from the authorities to fly from the mainland to Taiwan, he said.

In the past, a gravely ill patient staying on the Chinese mainland had to take a stopover in Hong Kong or Macao and change to another plane for Taiwan.

"That not only consumed a lot of time and energy, but also threatened the safety of the patient," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2006)