| Accident Description: | The aircraft was due to land at Dalian Airport at 9:40pm local time while on a flight from Beijing. At 9:20, the Captain reported a 'cabin fire' to air traffic controllers, and four minutes later, at 9:24, radio contact was lost as the aircraft disappeared from radar. The aircraft crashed into the Yellow Sea about 6 miles off the Dalian coast.
The Chinese government, on December 7, 2002, issued a report which blamed the crash on a fire started intentionally by passenger Zhang Pilin, a terminally ill cancer patient. Before the flight, Pilin reportedly purchased seven flight insurance policies totalling more than 1.5 million RMB ($187,500 US Dollars). Additionally, investigators searching Pilin's apartment found a number of mineral water bottles filled with gasoline. |
