Mei Liang, an expert from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said Tuesday that more than 400 crew members on 32 flights had been quarantined as of May 31 since the outbreak of A/H1N1 flu at the end of April.

More than 250 of the crew were hospitalized and quarantined, while another 155 were asked to quarantine themselves at home, without specifying how many were currently under quarantine conditions, Mei said during an Tuesday afternoon online interview with the xinhuanet.com run by Xinhua News Agency.

She said there were about 12 to 15 crew members on average for each Chinese airline passenger flight and about five crew members on each Chinese freight flight.

"China faces great challenges in preventing and combating A/H1N1 flu, as the country's 15 domestic air carriers operate more than 1,450 international passenger flights and more than 250 international freight flights weekly on average," She said.

Mei, also an official with the department of flight standards under the CAAC, added that if there were passengers on board suspected of being infected by A/H1N1 flu, the crew members would also be quarantined for one week after returning to China.

Mei did not mention that this would affect the normal operation of Chinese domestic airline companies, but said the administration and local aviation agencies had stepped up efforts to prevent the spread of A/H1N1 flu, including preparing enough materials used for A/H1N1 flu prevention, strengthening cabin disinfection, and setting up temperature inspection stalls at airport terminals.

The CAAC had established an emergency information reporting system within the administration with personnel on duty around the clock. The CAAC had urged various airline carries to step up A/H1N1 flu knowledge training to their employees, she said.

She added that all the leftover food boxes, sewage and other garbage on inbound flights to China would be treated with great watchfulness.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2009)