=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2002/12/17/i= nternational2342EST0818.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, December 17, 2002 (AP) Chinese jetliner loses cabin pressure, 13 passengers hospitalized with lung= , ear damage (12-17) 20:42 PST SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- A Chinese jetliner made an emergency landing after losing cabin pressure at an altitude of 25,000 feet, and 13 passengers were hospitalized with lung and ear damage, officials said Wednesday. The China Eastern Airlines MD-82 landed Tuesday night in Nanchang, a city in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, said a city airport official who refused to give his name. He said there were no other injuries among the 65 passengers and an unknown number of crew. The 13 people hospitalized, all adults, were coughing up blood or suffer= ed punctured ear drums, said a doctor at the Jiangxi Provincial People's Hospital in Nanchang. She said some may have permanent hearing loss. Many of those hospitalized were put into hyberbaric chambers on arrival = at the hospital, said the doctor, who would give only her surname, Chen. Such chambers increase oxygen pressure. Chen wouldn't give any other details. The plane was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Shanghai when cabin pressure failed, said the airport official. He said the pilots made an emergency descent and landed safely. Officials at China Eastern's headquarters in Shanghai and the airline's Nanchang branch office said they were still investigating the accident's cause. They declined to give any other information or their names. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 AP