More Than Five Million Hours -- No Accidents

China's Civil Aviation Administration says the country's non-military fleet of aircraft has logged more than five million flight hours without a single accident -- the longest streak in the history of the People's Republic.

The streak started in May, 2002.

From 1994 through 2003, China has averaged 0.62 accidents for each one million hours of flight time, according to Wang Changshun, the CAA's deputy administrator.

While that's a record for China, Wang pointed out, it's not as good as in some western countries. The US, he said, has an accident rate of 0.30 for every million flight hours. Wang pledged his country would lower its rate to that of developed nations between 2006 and 2010.

China's civil fleet consists of 1,277 aircraft -- some flying 1,198 scheduled routes as of last year. The fleet carried 100 million passengers between January and October of this year, a 44.9 percent increase, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

FMI: www.carnoc.com/mhgl/en.htm