Air China crew punished, flights slashed

CHINESE authorities have cut flag carrier Air China’s Boeing 737 flights and revoked the flying licences of the cockpit crew involved in a mid-air emergency sparked by a co-pilot’s vape smoke.

An Air China 737 made a rapid emergency descent last week after the co-pilot mistakenly turned off air-conditioning systems in a bid to conceal his ecigarette smoke.

The incident, which resulted in the deployment of passenger oxygen masks, occurred on a flight from Hong Kong to Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has cut the carrier’s Boeing 737 flights by 10 percent and ordered it to undertake a three-month safety overhaul, China Central Television said yesterday.

The cuts to the carrier’s Boeing 737 flights amount to 5,400 hours a month, it said.

The aviation watchdog also fined Air China 50,000 yuan (US$7,500).

Air China operated 269 Boeing 737s out of its 655strong fleet at the end of December, according to its full-year report issued in March. It has 311 Airbus A320 and A321 jets.

BOCOM International analyst Geoffrey Cheng said the crackdown would likely have an impact on Air China’s flight schedules, especially as it enters peak travel season, but could also prompt the airline to cut poorly performing routes. “It could have pros and cons,” he said.

The CAAC has said the drama was triggered when the co-pilot, trying to prevent his vape smoke from spreading into the main cabin, accidentally switched off air conditioning.

That led to a decrease in cabin oxygen levels which in turn set off an emergency warning system indicating the jet may have flown too high and instructing the pilots to quickly descend.

Smoking is not allowed aboard Chinese commercial passenger flights.

Chinese media reports quoted passengers and flight-tracker sites as saying the plane quickly descended as much as several thousand meters.

There were no injuries to the 153 passengers and nine crew.