An airline captain appealed on Wednesday after a court in Heilongjiang province sent him to prison for three years for his involvement in one of the most serious plane crashes in recent years.

"The ruling on Friday was based on an investigative report by a team dispatched by the State Council that was not inspected by the police and cannot constitute evidence for the prosecution," Zhang Qihuai, the lawyer for Qi Quanjun, the captain, told China Daily.

"Such accident reports cannot be used as the main basis for criminal cases. The judges did not have enough evidence to make a ruling."