Plane that crashed in China is N.Korean: Xinhua
(AFP) – 3 days ago
BEIJING — A plane that crashed in northeastern China this week was a military aircraft from North Korea, state media reported Thursday.
Investigators have found that the plane crash in Liaoning province's Fushun county was caused by a mechanical failure, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing unidentified government sources.
The pilot lost course due to the unspecified mechanical failure and strayed into Chinese territory, Xinhua said.
"The aircraft crashed into a civilian makeshift house, leaving no Chinese dead or injured. The pilot died on the spot," the brief report said.
China and North Korea have "reached consensus on coping with the aftermath" of the accident, for which Pyongyang has "expressed regret", Xinhua said.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Wednesday quoted a source as saying the pilot of the plane -- possibly a Soviet-era MiG-15 -- may have lost his way while attempting to fly to Russia to escape from North Korea.
China, an ally of Pyongyang, has a repatriation pact with North Korea, which could have been why the pilot decided to choose Russia as a destination, the report added.
Photos that appeared to show the crash site, posted on the Internet, showed what looked like a fighter plane with the North Korean flag painted on the body of the jet.
South Korea's military said the plane was likely a MiG-21, citing radar detection by its air force of the aircraft leaving a military airbase in the North Korean city of Sinuiju, near the border with China, Yonhap said.
"Radar images show the North Korean aircraft took off from the air base in Sinuiju," an official in Seoul, who asked not to be named, told the news agency.
"According to the images, it appears to be a MiG-21," the official said.
The number of North Korean soldiers defecting from the impoverished, reclusive state has increased in recent months as food shortages deepen, Yonhap said.
It said Thursday that Chinese officials, watched by about 100 armed police, dismantled the plane and transported it to an unidentified location.
It quoted witnesses as saying the plane crashed after circling a couple of times above their village in an apparent attempt to crash land.
"I've never seen any plane flying so low in my life. I thought the plane was on a training mission but suddenly it fell to the ground," one witness told Yonhap.
North Korea, which has been silent over the reported crash of its aircraft Tuesday, on Thursday boasted of its "invincible" air power.
The North's air force has grown to be an "invincible revolutionary armed force" since it was founded in 1947, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
North Korean pilots "fully demonstrated their combat capability" during the 1950-53 Korean War, it said.
