China: Airlines punished over their pilots’ errors

Five airlines, two of them foreign, have been punished over errors that could have resulted in plane crashes, China’s civil aviation regulator announced Wednesday. China Eastern Airlines, Okay Airways, XiamenAir, Orient Thai Airlines and Emirates have been ordered to make immediate corrections. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has also sent senior pilots, engineers and supervisors to the three domestic airlines to inspect their operations and carry out training due to a “landslide of safety conditions,” the administration announced on its website. Pilot error was responsible for most of the problems, it said. A captain and deputy pilot with the private, Beijing-based Okay Airways have been suspended indefinitely after one of its cargo aircraft ran out of runway during takeoff at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on April 27. The carrier was suspended from operating new flights or introducing new cargo aircraft for the rest of the year. Story details other incidents.<br/>