Reports: China East Star airline chief detained
(Source : AP, March 18, 2009)
The president of one of China's struggling private air carriers, East Star Airlines, has been detained by police while allegedly trying to flee the country to evade huge debts, a respected financial magazine and other reports said Thursday. Police caught Lan Shili at the airport in Zhuhai, in southern China, and escorted him back to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the airline is based, Caijing magazine reported. Authorities ordered East Star flights grounded March 15 after the carrier failed to pay plane rental fees to GE Commercial Aviation Services. An anxious sounding staffer in the company's public affairs office said Thursday they were trying to locate Lan. Staff at the Wuhan police headquarters said they were not familiar with Lan's case.
