New | PLA makes rare revelation about Chinese pilot’s death during training over South China Sea
The People’s Liberation Army has made a rare revelation about the death of a naval air force pilot in a training session over the South China Sea.
The pilot, Tang Xiaofeng, died after his fighter jet plunged into the sea during a low-latitude attack training session, the PLA Daily’s official news website said.
Tang served the same marine corps that lost another pilot, Wang Wei, when his jet and a US surveillance plane collided in 2001, news site 81.cn said.
Tang’s death was the first time Chinese official media was publicly acknowledging the death of a marine pilot in a sea crash during training. But the report did not give details of the time, place and reasons for the crash.
The incident came under media spotlight after 81.cn on Thursday published a feature on Hainan navy base pilot Zhang Wei, in which he recalled the death of his team leader Tang.
“Our team leader never returned after the training session He fell into the sea with his jet in order to accomplish a high-quality attack training,” Zhang was quoted as saying.
“What impressed me most was that the other pilots who witnessed the plunge carried on with the attack training at the scene of the crash.”
Zhang said his corps was equipped with comparatively outdated planes. Photos published on the site showed that they had since started using the more advanced J-11 jets for training.
Chinese authorities have long avoided public mention of fatal crashes during military training, unless the jets fell to the ground or were spotted by residents.
In May 2013, the defence ministry confirmed the sea crash of a North Sea Fleet floatplane but made no mention of casualties.
One of the few reported navy pilot deaths was Wang Wei’s. Wang’s J-8 II fighter jet plummeted into the sea after a mid-air collision with a US surveillance plane south of Hainan in 2001. He was declared dead after a search-and-rescue team failed to find him after several days.
