The first woman to fly China’s J-10 fighter jet was killed in a crash during an aerobatics training exercise, state-run media reported yesterday.
Yu Xu (余旭), 30, a member of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force’s “August 1st” aerobatic display team, ejected from her aircraft during a training exercise in Hebei Province over the weekend, the China Daily newspaper said.
She hit the wing of another jet and was killed, although her male copilot ejected safely and survived, it said.
Photo: AFP
“As one of only four female pilots in the country capable of flying domestically made fighter jets, her death comes as a tremendous loss to the Chinese air force,” the Global Times newspaper said.
Yu, from Chongzhou, Sichuan Province, joined the air force in 2005, reports said.
She graduated from training four years later, one of the first 16 Chinese female pilots qualified to fly fighter jets, and in July 2012 was the first woman to fly the J-10, the China Daily said.
Fans dubbed her the “golden peafowl,” it added.
Yu was seen as a trailblazer in a country that enshrines women’s rights, but where traditional values are still widespread.
Users on a Chinese microblog posted pictures of candles in her memory, with thousands mourning her death.
“We praise her not as an individual, but for the spirit she transmitted to us, becoming the ideal vehicle for everyone’s hopes,” one user wrote.
Others raised questions about the crash.
“Rather than stirring up emotion, the most important thing is to investigate why this accident occurred, was it a problem with the design problem in the fighter, or in the rules of operation, or in inadequate training,” another netizen wrote. “Only by ascertaining the causes can we ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Yu rose to become a flight squadron leader and, according to the Global Times, dreamed of becoming an astronaut.
She was one of two female members of the August 1st team — named for the date of the founding of the PLA — pictured at China’s premier air show in Zhuhai two years ago.
The pair strode to their fighter jets in lock-step with male pilots, all wearing identical green jumpsuits and sunglasses.
At the time, the China Daily quoted Wang Yanan (王亞男), deputy editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, as saying: “Female pilots have learned to fly cutting-edge fighter jets in the Chinese air force.”
“It means the air force has diversified its pilot pool and can recruit more female pilots,” Wang added.
Yu appeared again at this year’s show earlier this month, according to reports.
The Xinhua news agency quoted air force spokesman Shen Jinke (申進科) as saying that all its personnel were “deeply regretful and mournful” at her “unfortunate death.”
The J-10 is a workhorse of the Chinese air force. Two of the fighters conducted what the Pentagon called an “unsafe” intercept of a US surveillance aircraft over the East China Sea in June.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS