`Black Monday' highlights China's aviation woes

`Black Monday' highlights China's aviation woes

By Philippe Massonnet

BEIJING (AFP): A "Black Monday" that within hours saw China's
worst airliner disaster followed by the new hijacking of a
domestic flight to Taiwan cruelly expose the problems riddling
the country's aviation industry.

The irony is that the Civil Air Administration of China (CAAC)
had sternly declared 1994 to be "China's Safety Year" after 400
people were killed in air crashes and 10 planes were hijacked in
the previous two years.

Shortly after takeoff early Monday, a China Northwest Airlines
Tupolev-154 plane fell out of the sky about 30 kilometers (18
miles) southeast of the central city Xian, a popular tourist
destination.

The crash killed all 160 people on board, including 14 crew
and 13 foreigners.

A few hours later, a China Southern Airlines Boeing 737 on a
domestic flight from the southeastern city of Fuzhou to the
southern city of Guangzhou was hijacked to Taiwan by a man armed
with a knife and a fake bomb.

It was the second hijacking of a Chinese airliner to Taiwan
this year and the twelfth over the past 12 months.

"Air traffic is growing too fast for technical and human
resources, and all the new companies think about nothing except
making as much profit as possible, like everybody else in China,"
a western expert on China's aviation industry said here.

The gold rush is reflected in growth figures, which show
Chinese airlines flew 15.28 million domestic passengers in the
first five months of the year -- up 19.2 percent compared to the
same period in 1993.

Since the CAAC's monopoly over the airline industry was ended
five years ago, 28 regional and local airline companies have been
spawned, many of which were created in a hurry, are ill-equipped
and have poorly-trained personnel in the air and on the ground.

China Northwest Airlines, which lost one of its aircraft in an
accident last July that killed 59, has a fleet mainly comprising
antiquated Soviet- and Chinese-made planes. The company had 13
Tupolev-154s, three Antonov-24s and seven Yun-7 planes out of a
total of 40 aircraft as at the end of 1993.

The cause of the Xian plane crash was being probed Tuesday,
but industry experts speculate it may have been linked to a
problem with the plane's automatic pilot.

But decrepit or ill-maintained equipment does not in itself
explain the crisis now faced by China's aviation industry. In
November 1992, a recently-built Boeing 737 crashed near the
southern city of Guilin, killing 141 people.

Chinese airline companies have made efforts to improve the
quality of their fleets and are acquiring new models made by
U.S.-based Boeing and European-based Airbus aircraft
manufacturers.

"Air traffic control also poses a serious problem," the
western expert said. "Communications between airports, control
towers and planes are all bad."

CAAC deputy director Wang Xijue has said the shortage of
pilots is also a reason for the rise in accidents.

"One hundred and fifty new pilots qualify each year but 300
are needed to meet demand and safety levels," he said.

"Young pilots are entrusted with big planes very quickly, and
their lack of experience -- especially in emergencies -- has led
to numerous accidents," Wang added.

On the ground, the security situation is also worrying,
despite repeated directives from the authorities, as Monday's
hijacking of the China Southern Airlines demonstrated.

Agents for foreign airlines working in Chinese airports
confirm an abundance of security problems.

Training received by airport personnel in "anti-hijacking
tactics" has failed to improve the situation, they said.