United Press International July 8,
1991, Monday, BC cycle
Copyright 1991 U.P.I.
United Press International
July 8, 1991, Monday, BC cycle
SECTION: International
LENGTH: 616 words
HEADLINE: General killed in crash of U.S.-made chopper
BYLINE: BY DAVID R. SCHWEISBERG
DATELINE: BEIJING
BODY:
A senior Chinese general and several other army officers were killed last month
in the crash of a U.S.-made helicopter in Tibet, but authorities are withholding
details of the accident, Chinese and Western sources said Monday.
The sources, including aviation and military experts, said the helicopter that
crashed was a Sikorsky S-70 Blackhawk, one of 24 bought by the People's Liberation
Army between 1984-1985. The Blackhawk is widely used by the U.S. military.
A report carried by the official Xinhua news agency's domestic service confirmed
only that Lt. Gen. Zhang Defu, 62, the deputy commander of the PLA's Chengdu
Military Region, died June 16 in an ''aircraft accident.''
The report said Zhang was killed ''while aboard a military helicopter during
an inspection tour of various units,'' but gave no further details.
Based in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, the Chengdu Military Region
is responsible for China's strategic southwest. It includes borders with Tibet,
India and Vietnam, with which China fought armed conflicts in the 1970s.
Beijing maintains tens of thousands of troops in Tibet for border and internal
security. The Himalayan region was torn by anti-Chinese unrest from 1987 to
1989 and remains tense.
The sources said they could not rule out foul play in the crash but had no indications
of it. They said Chinese authorities had been so tight-lipped about the accident
that family members of those killed had expressed dissatisfaction.
According to unofficial accounts, about 13 military personnel, including Zhang,
several other senior officers and the air crew, were aboard the Blackhawk when
it took off from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, to observe military exercises.
The nature of the crash was unclear, but all aboard were killed, the sources
said. A Hong Kong newspaper has reported the helicopter suddenly plummeted several
hundred meters to the ground minutes after takeoff.
The sources said there were sketchy reports of fog or other bad weather, but
no indication of whether there was a fire, which experts said might be expected
if the aircraft had just taken off with a full fuel load.
Zhang, a veteran of the Chinese communists' famed Eighth Route Army, which fought
the Japanese and the Nationalists in the 1940s, was a decorated career officer,
according to official biographies.
He was deputy commander of the military district in western Xinjiang Province,
also a sensitive border region troubled by internal unrest, until his appointment
to Chengdu last year.
Sikorsky, the U.S.-based helicopter manufacturer, is a division of United Technologies
Corp. An official at United Technologies' Beijing office said the firm had not
been contacted by the Chinese about the crash and had no details.
Contacts between U.S. defense firms and the Chinese military have been restricted
since June 1989, when the United States suspended military cooperation with
China after the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen
Square.
The $150 million deal for the 24 Blackhawks was the first major Chinese purchase
of U.S. military equipment and was controversial at the time, with Beijing insisting
the aircraft would be used only for rescue and support functions.
In fact, the helicopters have been used most effectively for military transport
in Tibet. The Chinese army is believed to have no other helicopter capable of
flying regularly in the thin air of the high- altitude Himalayan mountains.
Before June 1989, China had signed to buy six huge military-type helicopters
from the Boeing Co., also for troop transport in regions like Tibet, but the
deal was halted by the U.S. sanctions.
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