The admission came in a report by the official Xinhua News Agency saying President Xi Jinping had signed an order awarding honourary titles to all pilots in the first squadron to conduct take-off and landing tests aboard the Liaoning, China’s only aircraft carrier.
“Two test pilots of the squadron sacrificed their lives during the tests,” the report said. No details were given.
The original Xinhua report ran August 28th, but went largely overlooked at the time. It was picked up by US defence blogs and linked Friday to the blog of the US Naval Institute.
Carrier flight operations are inherently risky, and the loss of two pilots is far from unusual. However, China’s military still operates under a shroud of secrecy and no deadly accidents relating to the carrier had been reported at the time.
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