Pilots die following accident during aerobatic training

Two Chinese aerobatic pilots died on Monday during training in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, according to the Aero Sports Federation of China.

The federation said in a news release on Tuesday afternoon that Zhu Xiaodan and Wu Zhenyu, both 36, died after their aircraft crashed near Faku Caihu Airport, a general aviation airport in Shenyang’s northern suburb.

The two were with the Flash Aerobatic Team of the First International Aviation Academy in Jilin province and were fliers of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force before j oining t he stunt team, according to the news release.

The academy said that Zhu and Wu had trained in Germany and refused wellpaid jobs at commercial airlines because t hey were determined to promote aerobatic performances in China. It said an investigation is underway.

First International Aviation Academy was established in 2015 and uses the Sanyuanpu Airport in Jilin province’s Tonghua as a training base.

Earlier reports showed that the Flash Aerobatic Team uses the XA42 twoseat aircraft made by XtremeAir, an aerobatic aircraft maker in Germany.

Liu Yi, chairman of the Liaoning Provincial Federation of Aero Sports, said that as far as he knows, the accident took place when the duo’s plane was carrying out an aerobatic maneuver, which involved a dive.

“They should have made a pullup right after the dive, but unfortunately they were late in doing so and the aircraft was too low,” he said, adding that the results of an investigation will uncover whether it was manual error or a mechanical malfunction.

The safe altitude for a two-seat plane to make an aerobatic move is higher than t hat f or single-seat ones, he said.