China's first aviation rescue training base was launched in Anyang City of Henan Province on July 16. It will train 100 pilots, including 50 men and 50 women. Besides, it plans to create a total 850 international standard aviation emergency rescue bases across China.

"When the Emergency Relief Promotion Center of the Ministry of Civil Affairs was established in 2005, it didn't have the concept of aviation emergency rescue until 27 academicians put forward the idea of establishing a national aviation emergency rescue system in 2009. Then the government started to attach great importance to it," Chen Ping, deputy director-general of the Emergency Relief Promotion Center of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said at the base launch ceremony.

Chen lauded the establishment of the base as a milestone in the setup of China's aviation emergency rescue system.

Approved by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in December of 2012, the base was established by Guangdong Baiyun General Aviation Co., Ltd. and Anyang Vocational and Technical College. Zhang Zixuan, chairman of Guangdong Baiyun General Aviation Co., Ltd., said it will sign up 100 helicopter pilots, 100 aircraft mechanics, 50 rescue staff and 50 aviation medical staff in 2013.

"The training fee for each helicopter pilot to get his business license is 750,000 yuan (US$122,325). We will spend 100 million yuan (US$16.31 million) to train the staff, including mechanics, rescue staff and medical staff, in order to deliver a first batch of civil aviation rescue talent," Zhang Zixuan said, "After graduating, they will be sent off to the aviation rescue bases across China."

Chen added that in the United States, wounded personnel can receive treatment within 10 to 20 minutes. According to the air medical ratio of the United States, China needs another 4700 aviation rescue aircrafts.

Additionally, the United States has 19,000 taking off and landing points. China, however, only has a couple of hundreds, including temporary ones. At present, the United States has nearly 700,000 pilots and Brazil has 40,000. China only employs 8,000 staff in the overall aviation industry, including pilots. Furthermore, only a fragment among them possesses the required professional aviation rescue knowledge.

"If we have 850 aviation emergency rescue bases across China, there should be three planes stationed at each base, with seven staff per plane, which means we still lack nearly 20,000 professional talents," Zhang said.

In some developing countries, emergency rescue has become the fourth largest industry, after the financial, insurance and telecommunication sectors. Training, technology and service have been perfected. The related industries have developed rapidly as well, including aircraft manufacturing, the assembly industry, real estate, finance, insurance and energy.

However, due to the lack of a qualified rescue team, China cannot form a rescue service network and the industry chain remains vacant.

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