First Chinese female fighter pilot dies while practicing aerobatic maneuver

The first woman ever to fly China’s locally made J-10 fighter jet was killed in an accident which took place while she was performing aerobatics training exercise. The deceased pilot, identified as Yu Xu was just 30-years-old and she was member of the Chinese air force’s ‘August 1st’ aerobatic display team.

According to the details of the incident provided, Xu was practicing maneuvering stunts with the rest of the teammates when this accident happened. She ejected from her aircraft during a training exercise in the northern province of Hebei during the weekend and as she did that, she hit the wing of another jet and was killed instantly. Xu’s male co-pilot also ejected from the plane but he landed safely and survived any injuries.

“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 commented.

Xu was one of the few female fighter pilots who were flying jet planes in the air force in China. She hailed from Chongzhou in the southwestern province of Sichuan and joined the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in 2005. After graduating from there in 2009, she became one of the 16 Chinese female pilots ever to qualify to fly fighter jets and in 2010 she got cleared to fly J-10. She was nicknamed the ‘golden peafowl’ by her fans.

Investigations into the accident will take place to ascertain how it occurred and to avoid such instances in the future.

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Posted by fatimaarshad on Nov 14 2016. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.