Desk Driver
10th January 2001, 21:20
Reported on ITN today
Two Chinese air force planes have crashed killing a total of 21 people.
The incidents killed 15 airmen and six people on the ground, according to a local government official.
The planes did not hit each other but mysteriously plunged to the earth in almost exactly the same spot near an airport in Kaifeng county in the central province of Henan, the official said.
"Two military planes crashed southwest of Kaifeng airport last week, killing 15 airmen and six villagers," the official said.
"They were very old military planes," he said.
"Perhaps something went wrong with the engines mid-flight."
It was not immediately clear why the planes crashed so close to each other at different times, but a local reporter said the craft were conducting flight safety tests in bad weather.
A Hong Kong-based human rights group said one of the planes smashed into the home of Liu Wenjun around 1pm, killing his parents, wife, brother and two other relatives as they ate lunch.
Liu escaped with injuries and was taken to a military hospital in Kaifeng, according to the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
The aircraft, one a transport and the other a trainer, crashed about ten minutes apart, it said.
The official was unsure how far apart the crashes occurred.
The Centre also said the planes were carrying an air force regiment commander and political commissar and the Chinese government had suppressed state media reporting on the crashes.
A local reporter confirmed that television crews and reporters who rushed to the scene shortly after the accident were told by a government official not to report it.
"Our journalists went to the site, but the propaganda department sent an official who told us not to report it or we would be seriously punished," the reporter from a Kaifeng newspaper said.
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You fly em we'll fill em!
Two Chinese air force planes have crashed killing a total of 21 people.
The incidents killed 15 airmen and six people on the ground, according to a local government official.
The planes did not hit each other but mysteriously plunged to the earth in almost exactly the same spot near an airport in Kaifeng county in the central province of Henan, the official said.
"Two military planes crashed southwest of Kaifeng airport last week, killing 15 airmen and six villagers," the official said.
"They were very old military planes," he said.
"Perhaps something went wrong with the engines mid-flight."
It was not immediately clear why the planes crashed so close to each other at different times, but a local reporter said the craft were conducting flight safety tests in bad weather.
A Hong Kong-based human rights group said one of the planes smashed into the home of Liu Wenjun around 1pm, killing his parents, wife, brother and two other relatives as they ate lunch.
Liu escaped with injuries and was taken to a military hospital in Kaifeng, according to the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
The aircraft, one a transport and the other a trainer, crashed about ten minutes apart, it said.
The official was unsure how far apart the crashes occurred.
The Centre also said the planes were carrying an air force regiment commander and political commissar and the Chinese government had suppressed state media reporting on the crashes.
A local reporter confirmed that television crews and reporters who rushed to the scene shortly after the accident were told by a government official not to report it.
"Our journalists went to the site, but the propaganda department sent an official who told us not to report it or we would be seriously punished," the reporter from a Kaifeng newspaper said.
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You fly em we'll fill em!