Funerals held for PLA pilots and crew killed in South China Sea crash

Funerals have been held for at least seven People’s Liberation Army pilots and crew who died when a warplane crashed in the South China Sea early this month, according to official reports.

The Chinese military has not confirmed the crash, which is believed to have happened southwest of Sanya in Hainan province on March 1.

Taiwan’s intelligence bureau chief on March 10 confirmed a Vietnamese journalist’s report that the plane had crashed off the coast of Vietnam. National Security Bureau director general Chen Ming-tong told Taiwan’s legislature that the crashed plane was a Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, and that PLA military drills announced in the area soon after the accident were actually a search-and-rescue operation.

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Funerals were held on Monday in the eastern province of Shandong and in Anhui, in the southeast.

In Shandong, pilots Qiu Mingdian, 36, and Zhang Di, 35, were laid to rest in their hometown at the Tengzhou Martyrs’ Cemetery, according to a post on the Tengzhou government’s WeChat account.

A funeral service was also held for another pilot, Wang Zhonghui, 24, in Jinxiang county, according to a video released by official media.

In Anhui province, video footage posted online by local media showed services being held for pilot Peng Bo, 31, who was laid to rest in Hefei, and another pilot, 25-year-old Cao Lihao, in his hometown of Anqing.

A funeral was also held for Sun Honglin, 29, in the north of the country on Sunday, according to a video of the ceremony posted on WeChat by authorities in Huanghua county, Hebei province.

Few details were given, but the posts on Qiu, Zhang, Wang, Cao and Sun all stated that they had died on March 1. There were no details given for Peng.

Funeral services appear to have been held earlier for another two servicemen believed to have died in the crash, with photographs circulating on Chinese social media apparently showing the tombstones of Huang Gaoming, 28, and Zhou Xingyu, 26. According to their tombstones, both were members of a PLA anti-submarine squad that was equipped with Y-8 aircraft, and both died on March 1.

The latest model of the anti-submarine warplane, the Y-8Q, usually carries about 10 crew – including pilots, radar and sonar operators, as well as those on weapons, according to Chinese media reports.

A Chinese military expert based in Hong Kong said the Y-8’s engine could be a problem at low altitude, noting that some sonar and bombing operations need to be carried out at an altitude of about 150 metres (490 ft).

“The Y-8 now has a six-blade propeller instead of a four-blade propeller, but its limited engine power has hindered an upgrade to a wider blade design,” said the expert, who declined to be named due to sensitivity of the matter.

“That could be a problem during low-altitude flight.”

The PLA had its worst air disaster in decades in 2006, when a KJ-200 early warning aircraft crashed during a test flight in Anhui, killing all 40 people on board – including two major generals and a number of military aviation experts.

More from South China Morning Post:

• Taiwan says Chinese warplane crashed in disputed South China Sea
• South China Sea: Chinese military readies for drills near Vietnam coast

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