On July 23, a dam collapsed at a hydroelectric station in Laos’ southern Attapeu province, causing many casualties, hundreds missing and thousands homeless. In the wake of the disaster, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) immediately launched the emergency response mechanism to ensure the transport of emergency relief supplies to Laos.

Upon the receipt on July 27 of the letter from the Ministry of Commerce on the request of transporting emergency relief supplies to Laos, CAAC coordinated China Eastern Airlines to immediately mobilize transport capacity and be prepared for the transport of supplies, and instructed CAAC Eastern China Regional Administration to go all out to coordinate all supporting entities to guarantee the transport of disaster-relief supplies.

When one party is in trouble, help comes from all parties. Relevant CAAC entities, having overcome the difficulties of a short preparation time, over-sized aid supplies and insufficient unloading equipment at destination airports, spared no effort to guarantee the transport of emergency relief supplies. It is learned that after receiving the transport mission from CAAC in the morning on July 27, China Eastern Airlines lost no time in launching relevant preparation work, made emergency deployment and arrangement regarding aircraft and crew for execution and conducted close contact with China Center for International Economic Exchanges to agree on flight slots and decide on detailed transport and flight plans. China Cargo Airlines, the mother company of China Eastern Air Logistics under China Eastern Airlines, having raced against time, efficiently finished route application, capacity arrangement, crew designation and transport support work to ensure the supplies are delivered to Laos as planned.

By far, China Eastern Airlines has sent two B747 all-cargo flights, which delivered 81.9 tons of relief supplies including tents, mosquito nets, inflatable boats, water purifiers and thin cool quilts, respectively on July 30 at 13:00 and July 31 at 05:00 from Shanghai Pudong Airport to Laos Vientiane International Airport.