TAIPEI - A plane evacuating a 71-year-old stroke victim took off for Taiwan from China on Thursday, the first direct medical flight since the island and mainland split in 1949.

The Taiwanese's 100-minute evacuation from Guangzhou to Taipei, approved by governments on both sides, stems from a June agreement that also calls for direct passenger and cargo flights.

Taiwan has banned direct air links with China since their split in 1949.

But as about a million Taiwan people live in the mainland for business or study, Taipei and Beijing exchanged landmark non-stop charter flights for the first time since then during the Lunar New Year Festival of 2005.

For security reasons required by Taiwan, the evacuation flight detoured through Hong Kong airspace en route to Taipei.

A Taiwanese with a medical emergency in south China would normally take a road ambulance to Macau or Hong Kong, then fly home, adding three or four hours to the total travel time, according to Thurday's Guangzhou-Taipei flight operator, Singapore-based International SOS.

"We've waited a long time for this," said Keynes Chen, general manager with International SOS in Taiwan. "The feeling is quite exciting. This is a good thing for cross-Straits exchange."

On June 15 this year, Taiwan agreed to allow direct cargo flights on a case-by-case basis and passenger flights during four major holidays, including the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Taipei and Beijing also agreed to allow special emergency medical and humanitarian aid charter flights.

All medical flights need special approval from both sides, a process that involves multiple government agencies and takes about three days, said Corinna Wei, spokeswoman for the Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council.

Chinese authorities had not decided on an application to let Taiwan citizens injured in a northeast China traffic accident on Monday fly directly home, Wei said.

The wreck killed two people from Taiwan and injured 18.