Air accident near Öndörchaan

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Air accident near Öndörchaan
50051 Hs.121 Trident Chinese Airforce (7181099095) .jpg

An identical Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident of the Air Force of the People's Republic of China
Accident summary
Type of accident Controversial: lack of fuel (Chinese government), controlled flight into terrain (Soviet investigators) or shot down by fighter aircraft
location near Öndörchaan , MongoliaMongolia People's Republic 1949Mongolian People's Republic 
date September 13, 1971
Fatalities 9
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type United KingdomUnited Kingdom Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 1E
operator China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Air Force of the People's Republic of China
Mark China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China 256
Departure airport Qinhuangdao-Shanhaiguan Airport , People's Republic of ChinaChina People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China 
Destination airport unknown, Soviet UnionSoviet UnionSoviet Union 
Passengers 5
crew 4th
Lists of aviation accidents

The aircraft accident near Öndörchaan occurred on September 13, 1971. On this day, a Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 1E approved for the armed forces of the People's Republic of China had an accident near Öndörchaan in Mongolia . On board the machine was a group around the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Lin Biao who intended to emigrate to the Soviet Union. All 9 people on board were killed in the accident. The cause of the accident is still controversial today.

plane

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 1E . The aircraft had the serial number 2131. The machine completed its maiden flight on March 16, 1966, before it was delivered to Pakistan International Airlines on April 11, 1966 and approved with the aircraft registration AP-ATL . At an unknown point in time, the aircraft was taken over by the Air Force of the People's Republic of China and registered with the registration number 50056 , and in 1970 the registration was changed to the registration number 256 . The three - engine narrow -body aircraft - the Hawker Siddeley Trident was the world's first three-engine passenger aircraft at the time - was equipped with three Rolls-Royce Spey 512 engines.

the accident

On the night of September 12-13, 1971, the plane was apparently stolen from Qinhuangdao Shanhaiguan Airport by a group of nine people, including Lin Biao, his wife and son . A flight was then undertaken from Qinhuangdao-Shanhaiguan Airport in the direction of the Soviet Union , the exact destination of the flight being unknown.

The Trident had an accident in the Mongolian desert, near Öndörchaan. All nine occupants were killed in the accident, including Lin Biao's wife Ye Qun and his son Lin Liguo. According to the official version of the People's Republic of China, the accident occurred because an attempt was made to escape the military radar by low-flying , which resulted in increased fuel consumption.

root cause

The exact circumstances surrounding the crash remain unclear as little evidence has been preserved. Many of the original government records relevant to Lin's death were secretly destroyed with the consent of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo . According to Chinese media reports, Lin Biao was killed in an air accident after a failed coup against Mao Zedong while on the run. After Lin Biao's death, alleged crimes were exposed for the lack of clear evidence. In addition, a document on Project 571 (五七 一 工程; Pinyin: Wǔqīyī Gōngchéng), which contained a collection of ideas for the coup, was only found two months after his death . A connection between Lin Biao and this document has not been established.

Rumors and conspiracy theories about the incident

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At least the existence and significance of the rumors should be proven.

According to some theories, Lin Biao was not at all on board the plane involved in the accident. Instead, Mao killed him in Beijing or had him locked up in prison. According to other theories, the machine was shot down by Chinese fighter jets over which Zhou Enlai was in command. The crashed machine may not even have taken off in Beidaihe , as the regime said, but in Beijing.

It was questionable why the militarily very successful Lin Biao should have fled at all instead of joining the resistance. The people of the People's Republic of China were only informed of his death a year late.

Some confusion was also caused by the fact that Lin Biao's daughter Lin Liheng was not on board the plane. As a result of this fact, the daughter of the victim herself became the subject of speculation. According to some theories, she was suspected of being responsible for her father's death. Among other things, she was credited with betraying her father by calling Zhou Enlai and telling him about the escape plans. He then had the machine followed and shot down by the Air Force. It is undisputed that Lin Liheng knew Zhou Enlai well, the two of whom were photographed together at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. According to other sources, Lin Biao's son Lin Liguo and friends planned an assassination attempt on Mao, but this did not materialize because there was insufficient support from the army and Lin Liguo refused to commit suicide attacks by his friends. Lin, his wife and their son then wanted to flee by plane to the Soviet Union, but Lin's daughter Lin Liheng, who was not informed about the plans and wanted to prevent anything from happening to her father, inadvertently disclosed the escape plan to the secret service. so that the family had to leave earlier than planned and board a plane that was not yet fully fueled.

Lin Liguo, the son of Lin Biao and a major thought leader in the anti-Mao conspiracy, allegedly ran a sex shop to find suitable partners to serve him after he succeeded his ailing father.

The existing and partly competing theories about the death of Lin Biao cannot be validated as far as possible, so that it is difficult to draw reliable conclusions about the death of Lin Biao, his wife, his son and the other six occupants of the machine.

sources