Regulator orders checks after air crashes;grieving family members being cared for

Part of the China Northern Airlines’ flight data recorder that was fished from the sea late Tuesday. It is believed to be damaged.

BEIJING - China's aviation regulator said on Monday it has banned late-night domestic flights and ordered an inspection of all pilots and aircraft after two major plane crashes killed 234 people in less than a month.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said it told an emergency meeting of airline executives on Saturday to learn lessons from last week's China Northern Airlines crash and the mid-April crash of an Air China jet in South Korea.

"We order an immediate and thorough safety check to rectify any problems," CAAC said in a statement.

China drew up nine new air safety measures to avoid more disasters, including banning "red-eye" flights, which typically take off after 10:00pm in China. It also asked carriers to control the addition of new flights to maintain safety standards.

The regulator said it would enforce security checks at all airports and slap administrative or criminal penalties on those found responsible for future accidents.

The China Northern Airlines McDonnell-Douglas MD-82 jet crashed into the sea about 10 km off Dalian on Tuesday after the pilot reported a fire in the cabin. All 112 passengers and crew died in the crash, which occurred at around 9:40pm as the plane was coming in to land.

Using special retrieval devices that arrived from the United States, salvage workers have fished from the sea the cockpit voice recorder and part of the flight data recorder believed to be already damaged from the airliner on Tuesday.

Condolence letters

The families of the 112 victims killed in the May 7 air crash are receiving help and sympathy from many sectors of society.

After the air crash, senior Chinese leaders, including President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji, Vice-President Hu Jintao and Vice-Premier Li Lanqing, ordered all-out efforts to rescue possible survivors.

On May 10, Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo visited family members of some of the victims in Dalian.

Visibly upset, the vice-premier shook hands with crashed airline passenger Song Guanghua's family members and conveyed to them the condolences of President Jiang and Premier Zhu.

China Northern issued letters of condolence on May 8 to all families of the victims, saying that the company would do its best to investigate the cause of the crash.

Dalian's leading local officials, including the mayor, Li Yongjin, also visited those victims' families who were in Dalian.

The Dalian municipal government selected 149 government functionaries who together with 138 staff members from the airline company took care of crash victims' family members who were in five local hotels.

Governments from nearly 10 provincial areas, including Heilongjiang Province, Beijing Municipality and Hubei Province, sent representatives to Dalian with condolences for the families of any local citizens who died in the crash.

Four psychologists from Beijing University and the Beijing-based Anding Hospital have been invited to Dalian to provide counseling for family members.

The China Northern Airlines MD-82 passenger plane plunged into Dalian Bay less than 10 km from the coast at 9:37pm Tuesday, shortly after the captain reported a fire in the cabin.

A senior executive from China Northern said the firm would pay each of the 109 passengers' families between 182,000 and 194,000 yuan ($22,000-23,400) in compensation.

Jiang Lianying, general manager of China Northern, said the sum would not include money already given to victims' relatives for living expenses, funeral expenses or accommodation in Dalian, nor would it affect allowances to the relatives by the government or the victims' employers.

Relatives of the seven foreign passengers qualified for the same compensation, it said.

The Dalian crash came just weeks after an Air China Boeing 767 slammed into a mountain in South Korea, killing 122 people. (Xinhua-Agencies)