Probe into boy stowaway incident ends
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-05-29 10:28

The investigation into the death of a boy who fell from the landing gear of a plane Wednesday finished Friday.

The boy was identified as 16-year-old Li Dechao, a native of Sichuan Province in southwest China, who moved to the northwest Gansu Province in 1998 to work for his relative Lu.

Lu lost contact with Li on May 19 and failed to find him until he identified the body of the boy in the hospital.

Lu said he could not imagine how Li managed to climb up into the undercarriage of the plane.

The special investigation team has left the Dunhuang Airport, where the tragedy took place, saying the detailed information about the incident will be revealed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Li fell from the undercarriage of a China Eastern Airlines A320 plane when it was taking off from the airport at about 7:50 a.m. Wednesday and died at the scene.

The Gansu branch of the airlines said the landing gear is usually unwrapped at about 15 meters above the ground and the boy might have fallen out of the plane from that height.

Officials with CAAC blamed the incident on lax safety measures at the airport.

The airport is sealing off the abandoned entrances with cement, installing more bars and dispatching round-the-clock patrols around the parking apron to improve its security facilities.

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