Rescuers drag the wreckage of a helicopter out of a reservoir in Hefei, Anhui Province. Photo: CFP

"It looked like the helicopter shook a little and then crashed into the reservoir with a big bang."

A witness told this to a local news portal about a helicopter crash that happened in Hefei, Anhui Province on Friday afternoon.

After the helicopter crashed into Dongpu Reservoir, which is located in the suburbs to the northwest of the city, the pilot managed to swim to a nearby island and call for help, according to ahwang.cn.

As the investigation into the cause of the crash begins, details about the incident have began to be revealed over the last few days.

Helicopter crash 

The Hefei government's publicity department announced on Friday evening that the survivor of the helicopter crash, surnamed Li, had been sent to a nearby hospital.

The department told the press that Li, 40, was the owner of the helicopter and chief manager of the Dakang Construction Machinery Co. Ltd. Li's copilot Wang, 25, was an employee of the company.

Forty-eight hours after the incident, the public security bureau of Hefei announced on its Sina Weibo account that Wang's body had been found about 30 meters away from the crash site.

Ahwang.cn reported that Li, who was piloting the helicopter, has a long-standing interest in parachuting, model airplanes and flying planes. He reportedly bought the helicopter for over 1 million yuan ($160,973).

 "Some residents often saw a helicopter flying over the reservoir and a nearby forestry park, and I then saw it, too," a director of the administrative office of Dongpu Reservoir surnamed Wang said.

The local media reported that an airport built and used by Li was hidden not far from the reservoir.

Undercover flying club

The 20,000-square-meter airport stands on high ground near the forestry park surrounded by barbed wire with a wall on its north side, making it hard to spot, a local resident who had visited the spot told the Global Times.

The airport has three helipads, a 400-meter-long runway, a hangar, a large swimming pool and there are six log cabins with reception rooms, bathrooms and other facilities on its west side, he said.

"Every single wall inside the cabins has planes painted on it and 'flying club' is written at the bottom of the swimming pool," he added.

There are many ongoing construction projects around the forestry park, which led to the residents who had noticed the airport to mistakenly think that it belong to the Anhui branch of China Vanke Co Ltd, the source said.

But the company soon released a statement in which it denied any connections with the incident.

"We have not examined or approved any land for the building of airports or flying clubs," an official from the local planning bureau told the Global Times but declined to make any comment on whether the bureau knew of the existence of the club before the incident.

The illegally built airport and its affiliated facilities will be demolished within a week, ahwang.cn reported on Wednesday.

The Hefei publicity department announced that Li had neither a pilot license or had been authorized to fly by the civil aviation department.

The Anhui bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) Eastern Regional Administration set up an investigation group on March 21 to look into the incident, according to ahwang.cn.

"Visibility decreased from 8,000 meters to 2,500 meters on March 20, which are not suitable conditions for low attitude flying. And there are many trees around the reservoir and it would have affected the pilot's field of vision," a director from the bureau, surnamed Fu, was quoted by the news portal as saying.

Fu added that Li admitted handling the helicopter poorly during the flight, which Li said led to the crash.

"We are still working on the causes of the crash," an official from the bureau, surnamed Tian, said.

According to the Regulations for General Aviation Control established by the CAAC in 2003, anyone to have flown without authorization should be fined between 20,000 and 100,000 yuan and/or have their pilot license suspended or withheld. Those who cause serious incidents should be criminally prosecuted.

Li's punishment has not yet been decided and it will be announced at the same time as the result of the investigation, according to Tian.

Regulations needed

"Flying without authorization is not unusual in China nowadays, especially low altitude flying," Hou Min, a deputy director of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of China's experimental aircraft committee, said.

Hou said that people need to get approval to fly their private airplanes from the CAAC and that the required examination and approval procedures are tedious, which has made some pilots decide to take the risk of flying illegally.

"A flying club can help people get all the necessary procedures done, including offering professional training to get the pilot license, and getting certificates for the airplanes or authorization for flying," Dou Ruchao, chief manager of both the Tuohang Aviation Company and Tianjin's first flying club, told the Global Times.

The gradually relaxing policies around private flight and increasing demand have made private airplanes and flying clubs popular in China in recent years, but flying clubs also need permission from the CAAC, said Dou.

A club can help the owner of a private airplane get professional training and maintain their planes, but "it looks like the private flying club in Hefei did not get any permission from the CAAC," said Dou.

Designating certain sections of airspace for private pilots to use would help the CAAC better regulate flight in China, said Hou, adding that this may allow private airplanes to fly at a low altitude if they comply with certain rules.

"Promoting the registration of private airplanes, offering more professional training to pilots, and strengthening supervision over private planes might help to decrease incidents like Hefei," Hou said.