On October 21, CAAC issued serious punishment on relevant entity officials and staff accountable for the incident on October 11 at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport.

After investigation, CAAC decided that the incident was a human factor induced severe incident which was caused by neglect of flight dynamics and commanding mistakes of the tower controllers on duty. Therefore CAAC gave punishment including warning within the Party, serious warning, administrative demerit and removal from offices of 13 officials in East China Air Traffic Management Bureau as well as the bureau's Air Traffic Control Center and Safety Management Department, revoking licenses of the controllers in the commanding seat and supervising seat, and banning the controller in the commanding seat from undertaking any air traffic control jobs for life. In addition, CAAC also granted a “first-class merit” along with other rewards to He Chao, Captain on duty of China Eastern’s A320 passenger aircraft, for successfully resolving the crisis.

On the same day, CAAC also summoned the leaders of Air Traffic Management Bureau to a meeting, seriously pointing out the safety problems of China’s ATC system exposed in the unsafe incident on October 11, demanding the ATC system to insist on problem-oriented approach, to focus on the key areas and units where problems frequently crop up, to conscientiously fulfill the safety responsibilities of the leaders, enterprises and front-line workers, and to start from the grassroots level units to lay a solid safety foundation, so as to give play to the role of the safety system and prevent a same problem from recurring frequently.