China said yesterday it is investigating the qualifications of the nation’s commercial pilots after revelations that more than 200 of them had falsified their resumes.
The probe comes after 42 people died on Aug. 24 when a Brazilian-made regional jet flown by Henan Airlines crashed at a small airport in Heilongjiang Province.
Fifty-four passengers and crew survived the crash, in which the plane missed the runway, sparking speculation that pilot error was to blame.
The investigation was launched by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the country’s aviation regulator, the central government’s news Web site said.
The resumes of more than 200 Chinese commercial pilots were found to have been falsified, the report said, with some of them embellishing their flight histories.
At least half of the pilots in question worked for Shenzhen Airlines, which owns Henan Airlines, the government report said.
Investigators were looking into the possibility of pilot error in the Henan Airlines crash, the report said. The crash was China’s first major air disaster in nearly six years.
Authorities have already ordered safety checks of the country’s fast-growing civil aviation fleet of 1,300 planes in the wake of the disaster.
Last week, the Civil Aviation Administration said it was looking for crash clues related to the plane’s manufacturer, operator, crew, maintenance record, and with air traffic management and the airport authorities.
Authorities in Henan Province have also ordered the airline to change its name to prevent the crash from tarnishing the province’s image. The company had previously been known as Kunpeng Airlines.
The accident occurred after the plane missed the runway and crashed into a field next to the airport, cracking the cabin and triggering an explosion and subsequent fire, state media reported earlier, citing an initial probe.
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number
Australian police yesterday said a 40-year-old itinerant with mental illness was behind a Sydney shopping center stabbing rampage that killed six people, including a new mum whose nine-month-old baby is still in hospital with serious wounds. New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said the assailant — who was shot and killed by a senior police officer at the scene on Saturday — was Queensland man Joel Cauchi. Five women and one male security guard were killed in the attack as Cauchi roved through a packed shopping center in the city’s Bondi Junction neighborhood with a large knife. Twelve more people