A chartered aircraft carrying 24 US air crew took off on Thursday from China's southern island of Hainan bound for Guam.

The Continental Micronesia Airlines plane left the international airport at Haikou, the Hainan capital, at 7:29 am (23:29 GMT Wednesday).

Aboard the Boeing 737 were the 21 men and three women crew members of an EP-3 spy plane which made an emergency landing on Hainan on April 1 after a collision with a Chinese fighter.

The crew was held for most of the time in a Haikou military guest house where they were visited five times by US diplomats.

After stopping on the Pacific island of Guam the crew was to go on to Hawaii for debriefing, then on to their home base in Washington state and Easter weekend reunions with their families.

(Agencies 04/12/2001)