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Cross-strait flight brings 14 injured tourists home
AIR AMBULANCE:
Fourteen people who were injured when their bus slid off a mountain road in China arrived in Taiwan yesterday and were taken to a Taipei hospital
By Jewel Huang
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Sep 20, 2006, Page 2
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Trans Asia Airways crew members help passengers who had been injured in China to disembark at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday.
PHOTO: YAO KAI-SHIOU, TAIPEI TIMES
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A cross-strait medical charter flight carrying 42 passengers yesterday arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
The flight, which departed from the Yanji Airport in China's Jilin Province, consisted of 14 Taiwanese tourists who had been injured in China, 12 of their family members and 16 medical attendants.
A bus carrying tourists from Taiwan slid off a mountain road in Jilin Province last Monday, killing two female passengers and injuring 14 others.
After a flight of about five hours via Hong Kong's airspace, the Trans Asia Airways airplane landed in Taiwan at 1:30pm.
All the injured were immediately transferred to Taipei's Wanfan Hospital.
Trans Asia Airways president Fan Chih-chiang (范志強) said that the flight involved the largest number of passengers and greatest distance covered since the cross-strait medical service was initiated last Thursday.
The semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said yesterday that the flight had been the result of a well-coordinated safety and rescue network.
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"[T]his medical flight was made possible by cross-strait cooperation based on humanitarian principles. The government will use this model to assist Taiwanese nationals faced with similar situations."
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You Ying-lung, secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation
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SEF Secretary-General You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said he believed that this new mechanism would help to safeguard Taiwanese traveling or doing business in China.
"The successful initiation of this medical flight was made possible by cross-strait cooperation based on humanitarian principles. The government will use this model to assist Taiwanese nationals faced with similar situations," You said.
The first cross-strait medical charter flight embarked from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, last Thursday, bearing a 70-year-old Taiwanese businessman who suffered from cerebral apoplexy on Sept. 8 in Guangzhou and who was in a critical condition after undergoing treatment in Dongguan.
The Mainland Affairs Council approved cross-strait flights for medical and humanitarian purposes in June.
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