A chartered aircraft, carrying a woman in a coma, left Shanghai on a direct flight to Taiwan at 11:45 PM on Tuesday, according to local authorities.

The 50-year-old Taiwan resident, surnamed Tsai, was found unconscious at home on the evening of Jan. 9. Doctors said her heart had stopped beating and she was later treated at the Dongfang Hospital in Shanghai, where she fell into a coma.

Both doctors and relatives declined to give further information, except to say she was in a stable condition.

Professionals from the International SOS rescue agency escorted the woman, who will receive treatment in Taiwan.

The Airbus A320 belonging to Taiwan's Transasia Airways was given the flight number TNA 1192. It is the fifth humanitarian chartered flight since authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Straits announced they would allow chartered flights between the mainland and Taiwan in emergencies in June last year.

It was scheduled to arrive at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at about 1:30 AM on Wednesday, for it is still required to fly over Hong Kong.

Four similar medical emergency chartered flights across the Straits were approved last year from Guangdong, Hunan, Jilin and Shanghai, carrying 17 patients.

(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2007)