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The China Northern Airlines crash that claimed 112 liveson May 7 was caused by a fire started by one of the passengers,Xinhua News Agency reported on Dec,7,2002．
Officials from the air accident investigating committeelooking into the crash were quoted（引證）as saying a mannamed Zhang Pilin deliberately（蓄意地）started a blaze as the plane approached Dalian．Everyone on board，including Zhang,died when the airliner plunged into the sea off the coast of Dalian．
The agency report did not elaborate（詳細(xì)說明）on whatevidence had led the committee to conelude Zhang was respon-sible,only commenting that the relevant government departments are handing the case according to law．
It was revealed（揭露）that zhang took out seven20．yuan(US $ 2．40．)insurance policieS before boarding the plane．
In the event of his death and the insurance companies（保險(xiǎn)公司）paying out，zhang's beneficiaries stood to receivemore than I million yuan(US $ 120．000．)．
Details of the suspected arsonist published by the Beijing Youth Daily said 37-year-old Zhang,a Dalian resident,had worked for police and foreign trade departments before quitting to start his own business．And，said the paper,his wife has experience of working for insurance companies．Zhang come under the spotlight soon after the accident because he was the only passenger on the ilfated plane to take out overtwo insurance policies．
Insurance analysts Said Zhang's accident risk policieswould be invalid（查證）if it is confirmed his crimial act caused the disaster．
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