Rescue & Aid

CAAC sends relief supplies to quake-hit airport

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-14 16:10

BEIJING: The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) urged local authorities in the nation's northwest Qinghai Province to dispatch disaster relief supplies and personnel to reopen the area's Batang airport after it was damaged by an earthquake early Wednesday.

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu in Qinghai Province at 7:49 a.m., with the epicenter being 30 km away from the Batang airport.

No casualties have been reported at the airport but communications have been interrupted and power supplies will only last for 17 hours, according to an official from the CAAC.

CAAC has told its bureau for air traffic control in northwest China to send technical personnel of air traffic control and equipment maintenance, alongside materials such as diesel oil and satellite telephones, to offer assistance to the airport in the quake zone.

Rescue workers from the bureau for air traffic control in northwest China bringing relief materials set out for the quake zone as of midday Wednesday, said the CAAC official.

Batang airport went into full operation last August without a filling station. Relief flights are needed to transport aviation fuel to the airport, according to the official.

About 300 people have died and 8,000 others were injured in Wednesday's earthquake. Many others were still buried under the debris of collapsed houses near the epicenter, said Huang Limin, deputy secretary-general of the government of the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu.