- Sun Tianqin
Sun Tianqin (孙天勤) was a
People's Liberation Army Air Force pilot who defected toTaiwan by first flying toSouth Korea . As a group commander, Sun was the Chinese defector to Taiwan with the highest rank, and his aircraft was the most advanced flown by any defectors. Sun also held the record high reward: 7,000tael s (approximately 350 kg) of gold, a record remain unbroken today.Sun Tianqin was born in 1937 in Fengxiang (鳳翔) County,
Shaanxi , and graduated from the elementary school in 1950 and graduated from the Fengxiang (鳳翔) County Middle School in 1953. He graduated fromXi'an Normal College in 1956 and in August of that year, he was recruited by thePeople's Liberation Army Air Force for pilot training. He was among the first group of pilot trainees recruited from universities instead of military academies. Another Chinese defector toTaiwan , Gao Youzong (高佑宗) was also among this first group, though the two did not know each other until they finally met in Taiwan after their defections. Sun completed his basic training at the 2nd Aviation School, his intermediate training at the 6th Aviation School, and his advanced training at the 11th Aviation School. At the time of his defection, he had logged around 1,200 hours of flying.During the
Cultural Revolution , Sun was persecuted due to his father's family background and was sent tolabor camp , working at the 22nd Factory of PLAAF and this was the major cause for his defection. In 1975, Sun was allowed to return to fly after his release from thelabor camp by being assigned to thePeople's Liberation Army Naval Air Force , and after the end of theCultural Revolution , he was steadily promoted. Due to his excellent performance, he was reassigned to thePeople's Liberation Army Air Force as a test pilot several months before his defection. Sun begun to serious plan his defection in May 1983.On
August 7 ,1983 , Sun Tianqin flew a J-7II experimental jet numbered 045 with what was the most advanced avionics in China back then: the British GEC-Marconi Type 226 HUDAWAC (Head-Up Display And Weapon Aimming Computer) and Skyranger airborne radar as a test pilot for the second time. Sun planned to defect two days ago onAugust 5 ,1983 but had to abandon his plan when he realized that he did not have enough fuel. Two days later, he had enough fuel and carried out his plan by flying fromDalian to South Korean K16 air base inSeoul .During the test flight at 1:30 PM (Chinese time) on
August 7 ,1983 , Sun told thecontrol tower that the aircraft malfunctioned and dived rapidly from 8,000 metres to 500 metres. While the ground was busy trying to handle the fake emergency he created, Sun continuously pressed down the button for communication set to prevent hiswingman from talking to the ground, because both jets used the same communication channel. After losing his wingman after the dive, Sun told the control tower that there was smoke in thecockpit to further confuse the ground control. By this time, Sun had reached the altitude that was safely out of the detection of theradar s, and Sun made his last communication to the control tower claiming that the aircraft was losing control and had to bail out, and then cut the communication, creating the impression that he had bailed out. Sun remained at the low altitude to fly toward South Korea at high subsonic speed for 15 minutes, and later Sun climbed back to higher altitude at 6,000 metres to conserve fuel. South Korea discovered the intruder at 2:13 PM (Chinese time) and was on alert. Fighters were sent out to intercept Sun and eventually guided him down on the runways of K16 air base inSeoul at 2:30 PM (Chinese time, and the local Korean time was 3:30 PM), and the alert was off.When Sun was flown to Taiwan, the entire island was on alert and fighter patrols increased to protect the transport aircraft of Sun for possible interception. All vacations and breaks were temporarily suspended and aerial patrols were increased along the Korea - Taiwan routes. When the passenger jet of
China Airlines carrying Sun took off from Seoul at 11:25 AM onAugust 24 ,1983 , a total of 8 F-5E's were sent to escort it when it neared Taiwan and a further 8 were on the ground in full alert, ready to take off within 3 minutes. Meanwhile, 4F-104 Starfighter s took off to meet the passenger jet to escort its landing, which was completed safely at 12:42 PM at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base.Sun wrote a 20,000-character denounciation of
communism titled "The announcement to the entire party" and left it on the desk in hisdormitory before his defection. He left behind his mother, Mrs. Liu, his 18-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter in China. Sun's mother was so proud of her son that she displayed a large picture of Sun in uniform at their home and after learning her son's defection, she was so devastated that she fell ill and never recovered, finally died due to the illness, and Sun's family members put the blame on Sun. Sun in Taiwan, eventually remarried in January 1985 to a musician, Ms. Li Tianhui (李天慧), who was also a Chinese defector. The pair eventually immigrated toCanada after Sun's honorable discharge from theRepublic of China Air Force as acolonel .ee also
*PLA Defections
*Jiang Wenhao
*Wang Xuecheng
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