To most employees of Air China, the crash of their Boeing 767-200ER
yesterday near Pusan in the Republic of Korea came as a devastating
shock.
"We were preparing plans for the Labor Day (May 1) holiday
traveling peak when we learned the news," said an employee who
works with the market planning department of Air China.
"My workmates and I could simply not believe the news at first,"
said the employee, who gave only his family name Li.
But with the continuing reports the message finally sunk in, he
said.
During the past 47 years, generations of Air China employees have
been very proud of their fleets' safety record, he said.
Soon after the accident, all the people in the company got together
to help deal with the aftermath, or to contact aircraft in flight
to make sure they would not be affected by the tragedy.
"I
maintained contact with more than 300 crew members in the air to
make sure they were safe," said Qiang Xinzhi, an official with the
air control department.
His workmate An Junlin was busy urging some 800 staff at the
Beijing Capital International Airport to keep smiling on the
job.
Reporters began to amass in front of Air China's office building
near the airport, hoping for comments from the airline.
A
brief news release was distributed to reporters at about 3pm, which
promised an investigation into the accident and compensation for
the passengers in accord with related aviation laws and
regulations.
"Air China is very sorrowful about the accident, and expresses its
deepest condolences to the families of the victims," the statement
read.
"As soon as I heard the sad news, I knew why I love Air China so
much," a person using the pen name of Guo Hang (Air China) said at
a website chat room where many employees of Air China also visit
and make comments.
Air China President Wang Kaiyuan said when he assumed the post last
year the airline's safety record is the result of the unremitting
efforts of generations of Air China employees.
But when the accident happened, they knew the relatives of the
accident victims were more sorrowful than they were.
A
special investigation team headed by Wang Kaiyuan arrived in ROK
yesterday evening to deal with issues connected with the
accident.
The staff of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China
(CAAC) also stopped their routine work.
Minister of CAAC Liu Jianfeng immediately contacted his ROK
counterpart and established a special team directing the rescue
efforts.
The administration released an urgent notice to domestic airlines,
ordering them to conduct overall checks of their aircraft.
Five domestic insurance companies, which cooperated in selling
aviation insurance to passengers on the aircraft, were busy
preparing to compensate the insured passengers.
Wang Lijuan, secretary of Beijing Insurance Industry Association,
said that they had contacted Air China for a passenger list of
those on the plane and tried to find out who had bought insurance
from their companies.
"We will compensate our customers as soon as possible," she
said.
It
is routine in the aviation industry for airlines whose aircraft
have been involved in crashes to devote much of their time over the
ensuing months to aviation safety education.
The crash came just six weeks before the soccer World Cup finals to
be co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. As many as 60,000 Chinese
are expected to be among the tens of thousands of soccer fans from
around the world to visit the two countries.
On
April 27, China's national soccer team will play a warm-up match
against the Republic of Korea at Inchon, and 20,000 Chinese
football fans are expected to go to the game.
Industry analysts said the accident might scare some fans away or
prompt them to select other airlines.
The reviews at China's largest website sina.com seemingly confirmed
these thoughts. Many people said they were scared by the pictures
of the air crash, and worried about flying to Korea to watch the
football matches there.
Air China is one of China's largest airlines with a fleet of 69
planes, mostly Boeings.
It
is now negotiating with China Southwest Airlines and China Aviation
Corporation to form a new air group.
It
also plans to list part of its profit-making business on the stock
market in Hong Kong and New York next year.
(China
Daily April 16, 2002)