Pilot jailed over China air crash disaster
Qi Quanjun, captain of the airliner that came down in heavy fog in Yichun in 2010, killing 44, also criticised for leaving plane before evacuating the passengers after it caught fire
PUBLISHED : Friday, 19 December, 2014, 11:08am
UPDATED : Friday, 19 December, 2014, 1:23pm
Mandy Zuo
[email protected]
The wreckage of the Henan Airlines plane near Yichun. An investigation ruled that the pilot insisted on trying to land the plane at the city's airport, even though he could not see runway landing lights. Photo: Xinhua
The captain of an airliner that crashed in Heilongjiang province in northern China four years ago, killing 44 people, has been jailed for three years.
It is the first time a pilot has been convicted on the mainland of the offence of causing a major air accident, according to the China News Service.
Qi Quanjun was the captain of a Henan Airlines flight that crashed near Yichun airport in August, 2010.
The flight was flying to Yichun from the provincial capital Harbin with 91 passengers and five crew on board.
The aircraft crashed 690 metres away from the runway. Fifty-two people were also injured in the crash.
A government investigation said the accident was caused by pilot error.
A report by State Council-appointed investigators said Captain Qi and his co-pilot insisted on landing the aircraft at Yichun Airport, even though the plane was engulfed in heavy fog and the runway was not visible.
A court in Yichun ruled on Friday that pilot error had led to the crash, which also caused direct economic losses of over 300 million yuan (HK$379 million).
The court also crticised Qi for leaving the plane before evacuating the passengers after it caught fire.It recommended he lose his pilot's licence.
The co-pilot died in the crash.
Accident investigators said the crash was also partly caused by substandard safety management by the airline, which is indirectly owned by Air China.
The crash was China’s worst air disaster since a China Eastern airplane plunged into a lake in Inner Mongolia in 2004, killing all 53 on board and two on the ground.
