Another Taiwanese tourist, who was seriously injured in Monday's fatal bus crash in northeastern Jilin Province, was on her way by an SOS plane to Beijing for further treatment.

A special plane from the Beijing International SOS Medical Center, which was assigned to carry out the two-hour flight, took off at the Yanji Airport in the Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Yanbian at 0:57 Friday, said Jin Chengmin, deputy director of the prefecture's health department.

Medical experts and the family members of the female tourist Tseng Mingmei, 66, made the transfer decision after Tseng's situation became worse on Wednesday morning.

"She was suffering from bleeding in her chest and had breath problems. But she's better now after emergency treatment," said Jin.

Before Tseng's transfer, 69-year-old Yen Wenhsiong, was sent to the Beijing-based China-Japan Friendship Hospital on Thursday morning.

Tseng would also receive treatment at the same hospital where Yen stays and the flight itself would not pose negative effect to her, said Wei Yanghao, a manager with the Beijing SOS center.

Yen underwent an operation on his trachea on Thursday and the operation "went smoothly", according to Gao Haipeng, assistant president of the hospital.

"However, Yen is not out of danger due to serious chest injuries, fractures of the ribs and lung damage," Gao said. "We are going all out to save him."

"We will decide when to send Yen back to Taiwan for further treatment according to his relatives' wishes as soon as his condition improves," said a Beijing SOS official surnamed Wei.

Currently, 16 other Taiwan tourists, including Yen's 60-year-old wife, Yang Suiying, were receiving treatment in the Yanbian Hospital and they were all in a stable condition, said Jin.

The traffic accident occurred at 9:40 a.m. on Monday on a highway in Wangqing County when the 20-member Taiwanese tourist group was traveling from Heilongjiang Province to Jilin. The bus first crashed into the rail on the highway and then fell 26 meters into a river.

Two Taiwanese women and the bus driver from the Chinese mainland were killed. The dead tourists were 66-year-old Lee Lin Ching-miao and Leu Hsiu-ching, 62. The other 18 tourists were all injured.

Family members of the victims have arrived at Yanji, city proper of Yanbian prefecture, to deal with the aftermath of the accident and local authorities briefed them on the accident and rescue efforts on Thursday afternoon.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2006)