At an emergency national meeting hosted Saturday by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) in Beijing, it was decided that all pilots, cabin crew and airport employees must undergo examinations on their performance of rules and regulations.

Any violation of the rules must be punished and corrected immediately, said Liu Jianfeng, director of the CAAC, at the meeting.

All the planes must be examined carefully for hidden faults and all pilots must be tested on their flight skills.

Overtime flights and chartered flights must be seriously controlled. Safety examination and airport management must be intensified, Liu said.

Officials in charge of safety should shoulder their responsibilities, otherwise they might face administrative or even criminal penalties for accidents, he said.

He added that restructuring of the civil aviation system should be pushed forward under the precondition of ensuring safety.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2002)