"The pilot died on the spot," one source said, adding the Chinese authorities were able to identify the nationality of the helicopter only after the crash.
Posted on 08/17/2010 10:56:49 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
(LEAD) N. Korean helicopter crashes in China, killing pilot: source
SHENYANG, China, Aug. 18 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean helicopter crashed in a Chinese border area, killing the pilot aboard who may have attempted to defect to Russia, intelligence sources here said Wednesday.
The crash took place in Fushun Prefecture in the province of Liaoning Tuesday afternoon, the sources said, adding the pilot was the only person in the chopper when it crashed.
"The pilot died on the spot," one source said, adding the Chinese authorities were able to identify the nationality of the helicopter only after the crash.
Chinese authorities had confirmed that a small aircraft flew into their territory but did not identify its origin.
"The helicopter unexpectedly crashed while flying over Fushun," the source said, declining to be identified. It remains unclear what the model of the aircraft was.
Another source said that the helicopter is believed to have lost its direction while flying to Russia after escaping North Korea. China has a repatriation pact with North Korea, and that may have led the pilot to choose Russia as his destination.
Fushun is about 200 kilometers away from a North Korean air base in the border town of Sinuiju. The number of North Korean soldiers defecting from their impoverished homeland has increased in recent months as food shortages deepen, observers say.
The following is the more detailed location maps culled from the network.
The MIG model presumably involved in the crash.
An update from Yonhap says: “Military experts said the plane appeared to be a MiG-15, a model widely deployed during the 1950-53 Korean War but now used mostly for training.”
See my comment #21. You can watch a Chinese news clip on this crash.
You aced this one Tiger.They misreported it purposefully
and the photos caught them in their misreporting. This is great, it shows we had the truth before the Chinese media massagers did. Come to think of it, we do the same thing now everyday with the USA MSM, which today is very much like the CHina Massaged Media.Eff them both, thats what the thread title means to me!
Thats why the MSM and the Chinese Commie media do not like us one bit.We make the ba$tards scramble to spin the truth and we still stay ahead of them! LOL.
I'm just a bit suspicious because pics "uploaded on the internet by a witness" have often been false in the past, and everyone tends to just run with them, making it more complicated to find out what actually happened in these types of incidents.
I thought it was curious early on in this story when Yonhap quoted an intel source saying it was a helicopter. Some time afterwards I saw an AP report claiming to quote locals saying it was a helicopter too.
A man who lives in Ersonggou village, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the crash site, said about 100 police have cordoned off the area.
The man, who would give only his surname Ning, told The Associated Press he heard from other locals that the craft was a helicopter that had flown from North Korea and that the pilot was killed on impact.
Ning said no buildings were hit and no one on the ground was reported injured.
Aniki? What is up
Maybe the guy just wanted OUT and saw the only chance to get OUT that he was likely ever to get.
It would be more interesting if it was a twin-seater, do they have that in NK?
If it is a trainer it would be twin seater.
The MiG-21U was built in Moscow as well as in Tbilisi.
According to this http://www.mig-21.de/english/inservice.htm#northKorea
North Korean armed forces have been massively supported with Soviet and Chinese weapon technology including - since the sixties - MiG-21s and F-7s. In its turn the DRPK military supported the Arab countries during the Yom Kippur war in 1973 with pilots and possibly also with airplanes.
Caused by the strict isolation of the country little is known about number and current state of North Korean MiG-21s and F-7s. However, it is to assume, that notwithstanding the bad economic situation of the country sufficiently material and personnel resources are available for the armed forces and that of the countries approximately 200 MiG-21 / F-7 a larger number is operational.
It was reported recently that Kazakhstan has delivered about 40 MiG-21s to North Korea via China.
Versions in overview:
MiG-21F-13
MiG-21PFM
MiG-21MF
MiG-21U / US
It is not certain that it was a 21U, and it could either have been a single or a twin seater. Do we have better pictures from the crash?
No new pictures yet. I suspect that PLA want to make sure that no more photos would get out. This is a frequent pattern in media censorship of China. Right after some incident, news or photos are out on Internet or news channel. Then the authorities move in and cut off the news source, or even retroactively erase posted photos or articles.
I hope that NGA got the time to take nice pictures, this will be one of the first nuts to crack for Letitia Long.
Shot in the head upon landing.
A N.Korean MiG-21 Crashed In China
Possibly a deserter. The locals at the crash site revealed on the internet that there was one man rescued by medical people. The aircraft was in rather good shape (it didn't explode), hinting insufficient fuel being the cause of crash. People at my forum have identified it as a MiG-21PF/PFM (see image).
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/rise-china/56293-n-korean-mig-21-crashed-china.html
North Korea obtained about 180 MiG-21s, including the MiG-21F-13, the MiG-21PF/PFM, and the MiG-21U/UM. Surprisingly, despite the country's close ties with China, North Korea doesn't seem to have obtained any F-7s. North Korean MiG-21s remain in first-line service.
http://www.vectorsite.net/avmig21_2.html
The pilot, who was reportedly the only person onboard the plane, was killed in the incident.
http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20100818/news_20100818_56_692005.htm
Thanx for digging more info from Internet. Opinions from multiple sites(FR, S. Korea, and China) all seem to agree that the plane ran out fuel and crashed.
Some in S. Korea claims that China agreed to take over flight training of N. Korean air force, and they are doing it in Fushun area. If this is true, the plane took off from Shinuiju, flying to Fushun for training, and crashed due to insufficient fuel. So far this is just a rumor on Internet and not verified by any credible media.
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