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https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/chines ... ent.t7966/
voor foto's. Niet van het incident zelf, overigens...
De film "Pilot's Symphony"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTi35556ZPg
schijnt dit incident ook te tonen.《飞行交响乐》1981年
Hard to tell. Of te verstaan. Probeer zelf maar te kijken vanaf 1.28.50
https://view.inews.qq.com/a/20170225A011AH00
bespreekt de film en het incident hieronder.
...de piloot zelf werd in 2009 geinterviewd door een Amerikaanse diplomaat...
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... -10170841/
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... -10170841/Recalling the H-Bomb that Almost Backfired
Yang Guoxiang, one of China’s top test pilots, tells the story.
When your assignment is to drop a live nuclear bomb,
you’d better not returnto base with it.
But that’s just what happened in 1971 to Yang Guoxiang, a pilot with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force,
who told his harrowing tale to Bob Bergin, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer
who writes about the aviation history of Southeast Asia and China.
Bergin interviewed Yang in Kunming, China, in early 2009,
with the assistance of interpreter Zhao Gang, an instructor at Yunnan University.
Air & Space: You hail from the remote mountains of Yunnan Province. How did you come to be a pilot?
Yang: China was at war with
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... -10170841/I had 70 flight hours, and was sent to fly ground attack aircraft, the Russian Ilyushin IL-10, a version of the famous IL-2 “Sturmovik” of World War II, the “Flying Tank.”
I was assigned first to the 22nd Division, and later to the 11th Division, which participated in the Korean war.
We were sent to northeast China and were ready to deploy across the border into Korea when American F-84s destroyed the airportwe were to use,
and so we did not go.
We became witnesses to the Korean War.
From our base in China, we could see F-86s in the sky, and knew most of the American pilots had thousands of flying hours,
while we had only a few.
In terms of experience, we were children. Our only asset was our courage.
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... 41/?page=2A & S: Describe your role in the development of China’s Qiang-5 aircraft.
While we were still in test flight stage, the Director of the Nuclear Weapon Research Institute had talked with me and
I started to sense that the Q-5 might be included in some strategic program.
He asked about aircraft that could carry a big bomb, like the H-bomb,
which was much bigger than any other bomb we had.
I told him it might be possible to use the Q-5.
Later, when Zhou Enlai asked about aircraft appropriate for an H-bomb mission,
the Air Force Engineering director recommended the Q-5.
That led to the question of a pilot qualified to fly the mission.
In a regular bomber like the Tu-22, there was a crew of six, but on the Q-5 there was only one man.
He would have to be a highly skilled pilot, totally familiar with the Q-5, and politically acceptable.
The Nuclear Weapons Research Institute later requested that I be named
as pilot for the mission. At the end of April 1970, I was told that I would drop the H-bomb.
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... 41/?page=2A & S: Can you discuss the logistics of this mission?
Yang: I met with the Director of the Nuclear Weapon Research Institute to discuss the Q-5’s capability.
The Q-5 had limited space inside its fuselage for weapons. The H-bomb was two meters (6.5 feet) long and weighed a ton.
We discussed the problem for three days, and in the end decided the bomb could be carried externally,
slung under the fuselage, in a semi-recessed bay, on a mounting that was like two hooks.
Later we added a device that would push the bomb out
so that it could not collide with the aircraft when it was released.
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... 41/?page=3After the bomb separated from the aircraft, it would continue to climb to 3,000 meters (9,840 feet) and then start down.
As the bomb climbed, it sped toward the target twelve kilometers (7.5 miles) away.
It would take the bomb sixty seconds to reach the target and explode right above it.
Meanwhile, as soon as the airplane released the bomb, it reversed course to get well away from the area of the blast.
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... 841/?page=The next year, in September 1971, a political event occurred that eventually determined the timing of the H-bomb project.
Vice Premier Lin Biao was killed in an airplane crash while trying to flee to the Soviet Union after a failed coup attempt.
There had been an upheaval in the PLA, and to raise morale,
Chairman Mao Zedong decided that we would drop the H-bomb that year.
The date of the mission was kept secret.
Once the date was chosen, and Chairman Mao concurred,
all of the personnel at the nuclear site were restricted to base.
The director of the nuclear weapons institute took me aside and privately briefed me on what I could expect when the bomb exploded. He assured me that I would not be in any danger.
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... 41/?page=4A & S: And on the day of the actual flight
Yang: On December 30, 1971, weather conditions were good.
I took off from the airbase in the late morning and headed toward the target, ground zero at Lop Nor, three hundred kilometers (186 miles) away.
I flew at 900 kilometers an hour (559 mph) and an altitude of 300 meters (984 feet), following the procedures we had established.
Twelve kilometers (7.5 miles) from the target, I started my 45-degree-angle climb, and exactly at 1,200 meters (3,936 feet) released the bomb.
Nothing happened!
The bomb did not separate from the aircraft.The indicators on the panel showed that it was still attached.
I turned back toward the target and prepared to do everything again a second time.
We had planned for emergencies.
There were three separate release mechanisms, mechanical links to the bomb shackle, of which two were backups in case the first one failed.
I tried all three; none worked.
On my second approach I followed the same procedures, and again the bomb failed to release.
I turned to try again. I made a third approach, and for the third time the bomb would not release.
The situation was now critical. I was running short of fuel.
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... 41/?page=4Before taking off, I had reviewed our emergency procedures. I had three choices:
I could abandon the aircraft by parachute and let it crash in a remote area of the vast desert that surrounded the Lop Nor Test site.
I could crash-land the aircraft to assure that it was set down in place where it would harm no one.
Or I could try to bring the aircraft back to base.
I reflected on the time and the effort that went into the H-bomb project,
and the great deal of money it cost the Chinese people, and I made my choice.
I would try to bring the airplane and the H-bomb back to base.
There was a great risk in doing this.
There were 10,000 people on the airbase, although only a few knew about the mission I was on.
If anything went wrong, thousands would lose their lives.
The bomb under the fuselage would be hanging just ten centimeters (four inches)
All radio stations in northwest China had been shut down during my flight,
and all flights in the area were banned.
I radioed the tower of my decision to return, and asked that everyone on the base be evacuated into the tunnels that were dug underneath the base.
It was Zhou Enlai himself who gave the order to evacuate.
A & S: Was there a possibility that the bomb could explode if it contacted the runway on landing
Yang: There were five “safeties” that had to be deactivated to enable the bomb to explode.
When the bomb was mounted to the airplane, the first safety was released.
Fifteen minutes after the aircraft took off, the second safety was released;
the third when the aircraft reached the target zone.
When the pilot decided to drop the bomb, he released the fourth.
The fifth and final safety released automatically sixty seconds after the bomb was dropped, an instant before it exploded.
No one could be sure whether or not the bomb would explode if it touched the runway,
but I was confident that I could set the airplane down gently.
So I landed with the H-bomb hanging under me.
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... 41/?page=5When I shut down the engine, there was total silence; I was completely alone.
The airfield was deserted.
All 10,000 personnel were sitting in tunnels under the ground.
I could not leave the cockpit:
there was no ladder for me to climb down from the fuselage that was high above the ground.
I called the tower and asked for help.
The tower told me to work my way back to the tail and jump.
The people in the control tower were angry; in their eyes I had put 10,000 lives at risk,
And I had caused a big mess.
It was lunchtime at the airbase; everyone was sitting down and eating.
They had to rush out, put on gas masks and scramble into the tunnels.
A big rice cooker caught fire because there was no one left to take care of the kitchen.
Everyone there then still remembers my name
It took a long time for anyone to come near my aircraft.
Our procedures for dealing with the H-bomb meant we had to wear rubber shoes and clothing that would not create static electricity.
No metal was allowed in the area of the bomb. In the nuclear weapons storage bunker, all steel columns were wrapped in copper.
Now that I had unexpectedly brought the H-bomb back, there were no service vehicles equipped with the required shielding.
I sat out on the field for a long while.
A & S: So you were not concerned on your second attempt?
Yang: The decision was to go again on January 7, 1972. Wind conditions were optimal. Weather at the Lop Nor site was good, but there was a cold front moving in. It was snowing at the airbase when I took off.
https://www.airspacemag.com/as-intervie ... 41/?page=5Yang continued to fly the Q-5 until he retired at age 50.
He moved back to Yunnan Province, and now lives in the provincial capital at Kunming.
The Q-5A in which Yang flew the H-bomb tests, Number 11264, is on display at China’s National Air Museum near Beijing.