Airline crash shows China safety standards have fallen, critics say

The plane crash Tuesday night that killed 42 people, the first in China since 2004, is giving fresh fodder to critics who say that a frenzy of airport building has led to lower safety standards.

A 100-seat plane operated by Henan Airlines crashed about a mile from the runway at the recently opened Lindu airport in Yichun, a popular tourist destination in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. Lindu airport, in operation for less than a year, is in a forested valley prone to heavy fog.

The plane, a Brazilian-made Embraer E-190, split in two upon landing and burst into flames. Nearly all the passengers sitting in the back half of the plane died.

Fifty-four passengers survived, including 17 government officials from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. The plane was flying from the provincial capital of Harbin, about 45 minutes away.

State media said Wednesday that the plane carrying 96 people overshot the runway on a fog-shrouded night, but that the underlying cause of the accident might not be determined for months.

But critics are already coming forward, accusing the industry of lax standards, shoddy construction and overbuilding.

“Henan Airlines should not have been operating that flight,” said Zhang Qihuai, a lawyer from the Lan Peng law firm in Beijing who represents victims of aviation accidents. He blamed in part the Civil Aviation Administration of China for permitting the flight.

“ China’s aviation industry has been growing rapidly, but blindly, for a long time,” he said. “When it grows that fast, there will always be loopholes” in the safety regulations.

China Southern Airlines, the country’s largest airline, also operates out of Yichun but decided in August 2009 to only offer daytime flights between Harbin and Yichun.

A report written by China Southern Airlines a year ago that was circulated Wednesday on the Internet in China cited the airport’s geography, runway lighting, wind patterns and an insufficient system for guiding landing planes as reasons to avoid flying at night.

“Principally, there should be no evening flights at Yichun airport,” read the report, posted online from the airport’s branch in Heilongjiang.

The Henan Airlines Harbin-Yichun flight had only been flown six times before. The plane took off Tuesday night shortly before 9 p.m. and went down at 9:36 p.m.

Lindu is one of 40 airports built in China over the last decade in a push to promote the nation’s aviation industry, encourage tourism and boost local economies.

Xianping Wang, co-founder of GCW Consulting and a former advisor to China’s Civil Aviation Administration, said China’s overall air safety record has been one of the best in the world for the last six years.

“But tragic accidents do happen and airplane crashes happen everywhere. You can’t say that just because of one crash China is less safe than other countries.”

Kuo is with The Times’ Beijing Bureau.

Tommy Yang and Barbara Demick contributed to this report.