The first woman to fly China's J-10 fighter plane was killed in a crash during an aerobatics training exercise, state-run media reported Monday. Yu Xu, 30, a member of the Chinese air force's "August 1st" aerobatic display team, ejected from her aircraft during a training exercise in the northern province of Hebei at the weekend, the China Daily newspaper said.
She hit the wing of another jet and was killed, it said, although her male co-pilot ejected safely and survived. "As one of only four female pilots in the country capable of flying domestically made fighter jets, her death comes as a tremendous loss to the Chinese air force," the Global Times newspaper said. Yu, from Chongzhou in the southwestern province of Sichuan, joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in 2005, reports said.
She graduated from training four years later, one of the first 16 Chinese women pilots qualified to fly fighter jets, the China Daily said, and in July 2012 was the first woman to fly the J-10. Fans dubbed her the "golden peafowl", it added. Yu was seen as a pioneering trailblazer in a country which enshrines women's rights but where traditional values are still widespread. Users on the Twitter-like Weibo social media service posted pictures of candles in her memory, with thousands mourning her death. "We praise her not as an individual, but for the spirit she transmitted to us, becoming the ideal vehicle for everyone's hopes," wrote one user. Others raised questions about the crash.
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