Sino-Russian military drill set despite crash

• Source: Global Times
• [08:02 July 21 2009]
• Comments

An army aviation regiment crew checks one of the helicopters that will take part in this week’s joint Sino-Russia exercise dubbed “Peace Mission-2009.” Photo: Xinhua

By Liang Chen

A Chinese military aircraft crashed Sunday during preparations for a joint exercise with Russia.

Both pilots of China’s FBC-1 Flying Leopard are believed to have died during the crash at a training base in Horqin Grassland, Jilin province, the Global Times learned yesterday from a source close to the military.

Russian and Chinese troops are set to engage tomorrow in their third joint exercise since 2005. Russia dispatched 22 aircraft last week, including fighters and helicopters, Xinhua reported yesterday, adding that more than 40 Chinese military aircraft, including fighter-bombers, armed helicopters and transport planes will also participate in the drills.

“The aircraft did not pull up and plummeted into the ground before it could inflict a strike on a land target at an altitude of about 200 meters,” the source said, speculating that pilot error may have been responsible. The Chinese military is still investigating the cause.

“The incident happened in just one to two seconds. I didn’t see the two pilots eject,” said a witness who asked to remain anonymous.

A ground exercise was going on when the crash occurred. Chinese Army transport helicopters quickly arrived at the scene, the witness said.

A woman with the PLA Shenyang Military Command, who only gave her surname as Yang, told the Global Times that audiences at the drill field were shocked.

“I stood in total amazement after the disaster and couldn’t recover my consciousness,” Yang said.

According to Yang, the plane was still on fire when she and others arrived at the scene 40 minutes later.

An official at the Information Office of the Ministry of National Defense told the Global Times that they hadn’t received any new information about the incident.

The five-day exercises, dubbed “Peace Mission-2009,” are set to be held in Russia’s Far East and at Northeast China’s Shenyang Military Command, from Wednesday to Sunday.

About 1,300 personnel from the army and air force of each side will participate in the exercises, and Russia will also send an airborne assault unit, according to the MND.

The MND said that the exercise is not targeted at any particular third nation, but it is intended to show the abilities and resolution of both sides to jointly combat terrorists, separatists and extremists.