Two pilots killed in Chinese naval plane crash

BEIJING: China today said two pilots of a navy plane were killed when their training aircraft crashed in the country's northeast after its engine caught fire.

An instructor, 27-year-old Jiang Tao, and his student, 22-year-old Lu Pengfei, from the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy Flight School died in a Navy aircraft accident on May 13 in northeast China's Liaoning Province, the Navy said.

The Navy released the news on its microblog, saying that the two pilots were killed after failing to engage their parachutes after they had successfully avoided crashing in a densely populated area.

After discovering that the aircraft's engine was on fire shortly after taking off, the two pilots turned the aircraft away from villages, residential buildings, hospitals and a business area and dived into woods, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

It was only 17 seconds between observing the fire and the crash. There was not enough time or sufficient height for the two pilots to parachute from the burning aircraft, according to the Chinese Navy.