The Qatar Airways aircraft that made an emergency landing at a northwest China airport Thursday left for Doha Friday after repairs, the Chinese airport authorities said.
The passenger aircraft, an Airbus A330-200, took off from Kashi airport in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at around 7 a.m., after its mechanical failure was fixed overnight, the airport administration said.
The aircraft was en route from Japan's Osaka to Doha when a mechanical failure forced it to land at Kashi airport at around 7:22 a.m. Thursday. The airport administration said it had plunged from an altitude of 11,000 to 2,000 meters in five minutes before the emergency landing.
The administration said none of the 20 crew members and 174 passengers from 22 countries and regions aboard were injured. All the passengers and their luggage left Kashi at around 9 p.m. Thursday on another Qatar Airways flight.
(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2009)