World
China flight crew rewarded for foiling hijackers
Posted: Jul 9, 2012 11:07 PM
Updated: Jul 9, 2012 11:08 PM
BEIJING (AP) Chinese state media say an airline has awarded cash and apartments worth millions of dollars to a crew that foiled a hijack attempt last month.
Six Uighur men were arrested for the alleged attempt in China's far west Xinjiang region June 29. Two later died from injuries sustained while fighting the crew and passengers.
Xinhua News Agency reported that Hainan Airlines, the parent company of the flight operator, awarded nine crew members with either 500,000 yuan ($79,500), 1 million yuan ($159,000) in cash, an apartment worth 2 million ($318,000), or 3 million yuan ($477,000) and a car.
State media say the crew also received cash from local governments and China's aviation administration. An overseas rights group says the incident was a brawl over a seat dispute, not a hijacking attempt.
