The Pakistani chartered plane carrying the bodies of the three Chinese engineers was forced to return to Urumuqi after taking off from the city due to mechanical problems at 9:50 p.m. on February 17, 2006. As the problems could not be fixed in a short period of time, Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui hosted an emergent inter-ministry coordination conference to find out a quick solution and the conference decided to immediately dispatch a Boeing 757 of China Southern Airlines at the Urumuqi airport to carry the bodies of the victims to Hefei, Anhui. Soon the Department of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the General Dispatch Office of China Civil Aviation Administration and the Foreign Affairs Offices of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Religion and Anhui Province to coordinate on related issues. The plane of China Southern Airlines left Urumuqi for Hefei at 3:10 a.m. the next day and the escort Pakistani officials flew with the same plane. The plane was expected to arrive in Hefei at 7:00 a.m. The working group from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had arrived in Hefei the day before to coordinate with the provincial government of Anhui for preparatory work.