China has a reputation of having the best technology resources in the world. Ironically and sadly, it also has the worse reputation when it comes to the safety of that technology. Their stigmatic specialty is in aerial catastrophes. In the past four years, China has had 10 serious airplnae crashes.
On the night of August 24, a domestic Chinese commercial flight crashed as it lost control attempting to land at Lindu Airport, causing the death of half of those on board.
As soon as the news of the incident began to be covered by the media, speculations and hypothesis began to circulate amongst newsrooms and the desks of federal agencies. In order to cease those rumors six central Chinese government agencies were called to investigate the cause of the accident. The top hypothetical reasons behind the crash are the bad lighting and terrain of the airport, and weather landing conditions. Human error has been considered but not as strongly as the previous reasons.
Demand and Supply
China's aviation market has rapidly developed in the past years. Unable to satisfy the high demand of daylight daily flights airlines have been forced to build small regional airports in areas previously considered unpractical for nighttime aviation.
If findings from the investigation confirm that the crash is linked to the negligence to equip airports with strong lighting against the low visibility caused by seasonal weather conditions of Northern China, both the Chinese government and airlines serving passengers under those conditions will face a serious crisis.
Thumbs up, thumbs down
Up to this moment, Lian Jiakum, vice director of the State Administration of Work Safety has expressed his positive outlook at the disaster. He said, "the plane crash is a lesson for the civil aviation industry, for every pilot and every crew." His initial message to the public expresses sympathy to the general concern to track those responsible and make recommendations to China's government on how to prevent disasters such as this one. Lian's positive approach to the situation attempts to lower any bad present or future impressiona, as well as gaining trust for hte future establishment of an open communication among his publics.
Henan Airlines first action after the crash has not been the best. Days after the incident, the airline announced the removal of its president and made a public apology to those who were affected. By offering an apology the company has admitted to be guilty of a misdeed that has not yet been officially proved. In addition to this, by removing the president they have given the impresssion that his removal is linked to his incompetency to lead in moments of distress; therefore leading to think that he wasn't supposed to hold such position in the first place.
(Information was gathered from the following websites: bloomerg.com, cnn.com, csmonitor.com, and reuters.com)
