Rescue & Aid
China's aviation sends relief to quake-hit airport
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-14 20:57
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BEIJING - Radio communication had been resumed in quake-hit zone Qinghai's Batang airport, and the emergency power supply system meant the airport could operate normally, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) confirmed late Wednesday.
Disaster relief supplies and personnel, which were dispatched by local aviation authorities at 2:00 p.m., had arrived at the airport as instructed by the CAAC.
Earlier Wednesday the CAAC told the bureau for air traffic control in northwest China to send people trained in air traffic control and equipment maintenance, as well as things such as diesel and satellite telephones, to give assistance to the airport in the quake zone.
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu in northwestern Qinghai Province at 7:49 a.m., with the epicenter 30 kilometers away from Batang airport.
No casualties have been reported at the airport.
China Southern Airlines said it would dispatch late Wednesday two relief flights for rescue missions, which would carry 300 firefighters and several life-detection units.
Batang airport went into full operation last August without a filling station. Relief flights were needed to transport aviation fuel to the airport.
The Ministry of Railways said the Qinghai-Tibet Railway remained in good working order, with the epicenter 362 kilometers away from it at the nearest point.
Vice minister with Ministry of Transportation Gao Hongfeng has departed for the quake-hit zone.
About 400 people were confirmed dead and 10,000 others injured in Wednesday's earthquake. Many others were still buried under the debris of collapsed houses near the epicenter, said Huang Limin, deputy secretary-general of the government of the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu.
