Chinese troops suffered a loss at the joint Russian-Chinese exercise “Peace Mission-2009”: a two-seater warplane land-crashed during the second joint training session of the two countries' troops. Both pilots died, Itar-Tass quoted a reliable military source as saying. “A plane of the Chinese Air Force, flying to inflict a strike on a land target at an altitude of around 200 meters, lost speed, tilted to one side, land-crashed and exploded. Both pilots – officers of the Chinese Air Force – died,” the source noted. According to a preliminary appraisal, “a blunder in piloting” was the reason for the disaster.
