Tuesday, October 11, 2011

PLA Air Force denies news of advanced fighter crash

The State Internet Information Office has ordered that the individual who published the 'fake' news and the Web site that carried it be punished according to the law

The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) on Sunday denied rumors that one of its experimental fighter aircraft had crashed during a test flight in Shaanxi Province after Hong Kong and Taiwanese media reported the news.

The reports said that an all-weather, single engine J-10B multirole fighter aircraft had crashed at the China Flight Test Establishment in Xianyang, Xi'an, adding that the pilot was killed in the accident as he attempted to save the aircraft.

Chinese officials said no aircraft had crashed and that no pilot had been killed, calling the story pure fabrication and adding that the rumor had been traced back to the personal blog of a worker in Beijing, the People’s Daily said yesterday.

The Global Times said the allegations first emerged in a sina.com microblog post on Friday and had been picked up by the Hong Kong-based Sing Tao, which ran a story on Saturday. The report was widely circulated and was eventually picked up by Taiwanese media, the PLAAF said.

My article, published today in the Taipei Times, continues here.

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