Chinese netizens mourned the loss of three pilots from the People's Liberation Army who died during a training accident on Oct 11. All were participants of the military parade on the nation's 70th birthday on Oct 1.
The deceased pilots were aviation mechanic Wen Weibin, 37; first-class pilot Gong Dachuan, 33; and third-class pilot Luo Wei, 24. Their aircraft encountered a malfunction during a training mission, and to avoid falling into the village below, they crashed their plane into the side of a mountain, according to China Youth Daily.
The Sina Weibo hashtag relating to the incident has attracted more than 220 million views on the social media platform as of Monday afternoon.
On Oct 24, Luo's ashes returned to his homeland and wereburied at the martyr cemetery in Luzhou, Sichuan province, according to local media reports. One Sina Weibo user wrote in the comment section of the video showing Luo's funeral, saying, "Left home as a teen, came back a hero. At age 24, farewell."
On Oct 22, tens of thousands of people from Gong's hometown of Xinye county, Henan province, lined up along the street with flowers and tears to salute the fallen hero as hisashes were carried home for burial, according to local media. Local vans also carried black and white banners that read, "a loyal soul returning home, a bold spirit soars into the sky".
On Oct 20, Wen's ashes were buried at the martyr cemetery in Taojiang county, Hunan province. Wen was a lieutenant colonel and had participated in the 2015 China Victory Day Parade that marked the 70th anniversary of the victory of Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
Wen's comrade Cheng Xiaoyong said during the burial ceremony that Wen was hardworking, altruistic and loved to study. "He has the respect of all 890,000 people from our county," he said.
