A 72-year-old Taiwan patient took a charter flight directly back to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan Province, from the mainland on September 14.

The flight was the first cross-Straits direct charter flight for a medical emergency and follows a relaxing of rules in June.

There are still no direct passenger flights between the mainland and Taiwan except at certain times of the year, for example, during Spring Festival.

A medical specialist team and ICU (intensive care unit) equipment were also on board the plane. It took off from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport at 16:30 yesterday and arrived in Taipei less than 2 hours later.

The patient, Chen Yaozong, was visiting his daughter and son-in-law, who run a footwear factory in Dongguan of Guangdong Province, when he had a brain haemorrhage last Friday.

He was taken to the Dongguan Houjie Hospital and stayed there for six days.

"The hospital said my father was in a critical condition, so we asked (insurers) International SOS for help," said the patient's son.

International SOS chartered the plane.

"A direct charter flight made the ambulance transfer much more convenient and helped to make my father's condition stable," the son added.

Previously, other patients from Taiwan who were in South China and wanted to receive treatment back home travelled by ambulance to Hong Kong or Macao special administrative regions before they could be transported by commercial or charter flight to the island province.

"The travel time is now reduced by three to four hours because we no longer have to do a stopover and transfer the patient from a road ambulance to an air ambulance," said He Jingbin, deputy general manager of International SOS China.

"Furthermore, a direct cross-Straits flight is particularly helpful for a cerebral disease patient as there is only one takeoff and one landing," He added.

Yesterday's medical evacuation was the first cross-Straits ambulance transfer service by International SOS and Deer Jet Co Ltd. Deer Jet is a business charter operator and one of the key subsidiaries of Hainan Airlines Group, the mainland's fourth largest commercial airline.

The two firms launched a cross-Straits emergency medical rescue service in June, shortly after the mainland's Cross-Straits Aviation Transport Exchange Council and the Taipei Airlines Association signed an agreement on the expansion of cross-Straits air services on June 14.

The agreement allows chartered flights for medical emergencies and where first aid is needed for the handicapped. Provision was also made for direct cargo flights carrying special equipment for Taiwan factories on the mainland on a case-by-case basis.

The first direct cargo charter flight landed in Shanghai in July, carrying equipment for a Taiwanese-invested chip factory there.

International SOS said it was preparing for a second charter flight for the emergency medical rescue of a dozen Taiwan tourists who were injured in a bus crash in Wangqing, near Yanbian in northeast China's Jilin Province, on Monday.

"An Air China or Taiwan airliner will be used for the flight, that flight will probably take off in a week," He said. "We have to wait until the injured are in a stable condition."

(China Daily September 15, 2006)