The names of the two pilots who died in a crash in East China's Shandong Province on Sunday were released by the Air Force of the People's Liberation Army in a posting on the website of the Ministry of National Defense Tuesday afternoon.

The two fighter jet pilots were staff officer Wu Yongming and team commander Yu Liang, according to the piece that paid tribute to the pilots who had died in missions and training.

A Su-27 fighter jet crashed near the city of Rongcheng at 1:35 pm on Sunday, killing Wu and Yu, who had been conducting a training mission.

No collateral damage on the ground was reported, according to the air force.

The air force rushed to rescue the pilots after the crash and is continuing to handle the incident. Condolences were offered for the two pilots, said the article on the website.

The Tuesday posting did not give any reason for the accident, but did contain some details of another similar accident that occurred on May 6, 2010 in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong Province.

In the 2010 case, pilot Feng Siguang, 28, suffered an engine shutdown while carrying out a flight mission.

In order to avoid crashing the plane into the densely populated areas of Jinan, Feng steered the plane to change its flight trajectory, missing the opportunity to bail out.

The posting was published before China's traditional Tomb-sweeping Day, which falls on Thursday.

Global Times