(Image Source: Xinhua)

BY IRIS ZHANG

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

You're watching multisouce global news analysis from Newsy.

The debate continues in China -  after The Civil Aviation Administration punished the local JuneYao Airlines for a near disaster that happened in early August.  

JuneYao’s South Korean pilot ignored six orders from air-traffic control and refused to yield to a Qatar Airways plane claiming to have only five minutes of remaining fuel. The pilot responded-- saying he also needed priority with only four minutes of fuel left.

Both airlines narrowly avoided disaster before landing safely. According to a regulator quoted by Bloomberg, CAAC’s investigation showed air crews from both airlines were not honest about their fuel loads.

“Investigations showed that the JuneYao plane had enough fuel onboard to fly for another 72 minutes when it landed  ... The Qatar plane had 48 minutes’ worth.”

CAAC decided to cut the carrier’s capacity by 10% for three months and ban the Korean pilot from flying again in China. China’s state run CNTV has the details of other punishments.

“The carrier has also been ordered to stop hiring foreign pilots temporarily and to review the ability of its foreign pilots. It asked to pull the existing foreign flight crews for at least 48 hours of ground training within 30 days.”

China Daily looks into why the airline crews would lie about a fuel shortage - and risk collision.

“Raising false alarm about fuel shortage will not only get a pilot permission for priority landing, but also reduce his time hovering in the air and thus reduce fuel consumption. Given the high price of oil ... private airlines are more prone to use such tactics and could even mislead their pilots to increase profits.”

Shanghai’s local Dragon TV points out-- despite all the rules in the industry, people still lack a sense of responsibility to obey these rules.

“First of all, we should have zero tolerance to these misconducts. If anyone dares to disobey the rules, we must impose the harshest punishment to avoid it from happening again.”