Chapter 254: Strong Five Dive Encounter Accident

The next day, the sky was clear and blue, with white clouds drifting in the azure sky, a sight that lifted one's spirits.

Near Ha Cheng, a certain Air Force base.

"Today, our mission is ground attack; everyone pay attention, be bold yet careful, overcome fear......" The commander of the Strong Five Aviation Regiment, Li Daming, looked at the pilots before him, especially the few new faces: "Niu Haitao, Ma Bowen, Li Hua, how ready are you?"

"We guarantee to complete the training mission!"

"Good, then next, you fly first!"

"Yes!"

The three said this, turned around, and ran toward the neat row of fighters behind.

The pointed nose, side intakes, gave a modern feel, but the long wing blades on the wings represented the achievements of aerodynamics from the 1950s‑60s, showing it had fallen behind the times.

Further back were the normal vertical and horizontal stabilizers; the two engines at the rear gave this aircraft excellent maneuverability, after all, 'big power flies bricks' is an eternal truth in aircraft design.

This is the Eastern‑dedicated ground‑attack Strong Five!

In the 1960s, due to a lack of advanced ground‑attack aircraft domestically, Old Lu led the team in converting the Jian‑6 fighter into a dedicated ground‑attack Strong Attack Aircraft; because the Jian‑6 had excellent maneuverability and a high thrust‑to‑weight ratio, the Strong Five's modification was highly successful, and after equipping troops it became the main force for ground attack.

As a ground‑attack aircraft, dive bombing is required; and when diving, seeing the ground rush up instills an instinctive fear!

Strong Attack Aircraft pilots must overcome this fear, or else……

Li Daming walked into the control tower with a solemn expression, picked up the radio, and listened to the voice inside.

"018 requests takeoff!"

"019 requests takeoff!"

"033 requests takeoff!"

"Cleared for takeoff!"

In the roar, three taxied onto the runway, formed a three‑ship formation, taxied, took off, swiftly and smoothly, all in one motion.

"These three newcomers have good skill!" said the base staff officer, Fan Congxi, from the side.

"Yes, they came from the Harbin Flying Institute; our unit gets the early pick, and I snatched these three before they even graduated." Li Daming chuckled: "As long as they pass the dive‑attack test, they'll grow quickly."

"Yes, to be a Strong Attack Aircraft pilot one must dive‑attack, but…… I've heard the West already has advanced avionics that allow precise bombing in level flight—safe and efficient……"

"That's right, Western technology is very advanced, but…… we can only drool, our equipment tech is lacking, so we can only make do with our training!"

Other aircraft noses are for mounting advanced airborne radar; our Strong Five's nose is merely to lower the dive angle and give the Strong Attack Aircraft a better ground view—the nose interior is empty, nothing at all, after all, an aluminium‑alloy nose can't radiate electromagnetic waves.

As they spoke, the roar sounded, and the three Strong Fives had already flown back.

The base is small, with the apron on one side of the runway and the firing range on the other; fortunately the Strong Five has good maneuverability and a small turning radius, so after getting airborne it can make a circle and then dive down.

018 led the way, screaming down, the distance to the ground growing ever closer, ever closer.

Everyone's hearts rose to their throats; this moment tested psychological endurance the most.

"018, pay attention—now counting down: ten, nine, eight…… one, pull up, pull up!"

The silver aircraft, light as a swallow, traced a graceful arc; its lowest point was almost less than fifty meters above the ground, and it successfully pulled up!

"Beautiful!"

019 followed closely, diving, eyes locked on the target straight down, watching the ground draw nearer, Ma Bowen gritted his teeth and held on; after hearing the pull‑up call in his headset, he finally pulled back on the stick with both hands, watching the ground recede, he panted heavily, cold sweat trickling down his back.

033 also screamed down; seeing his two companions' splendid performance, Li Hua felt a bit of pressure and knew he too had to do even better!

Push the stick, dive!

Wait! Why does today's control stick feel a bit stuck?

"033 calling, pitch control has a stick."

What?

"Pull up, pull up now!" Li Daming shouted loudly, his gaze through the command tower's porthole fixed outside—there the aircraft was still diving!

Oh no!

"Quick, bail out!"

Dive attack is extremely dangerous; once an accident occurs, one must decide instantly, or else……

"Give me fifteen seconds, I still have altitude!" At this moment, Li Hua's mind held only one thought: save the aircraft!

The altimeter spun wildly, the control stick was pulled all the way back, yet the aircraft kept diving!

Seeing the ground rush up at speed, Li Hua gritted his teeth, wanting to try again, when the voice in his headset turned urgent.

"033, I order you, bail out immediately!"

Li Hua pressed his legs together, pulled the ejection handle; a surge of heat shot up from beneath him, the canopy flew off overhead, and the next second he had left the cockpit!

I never imagined I'd become the first ejection‑parachute trainee of the 81st class!

Below, countless people widened their eyes, watching the ejected pilot, while Li Daming already felt an ominous sign and shouted loudly: "Quick, ambulance, quick!"

Surely, the parachute had just opened when Li Hua's whole body hit the ground—altitude too low to deploy it in time!

"033!"

"Li Hua!"

Countless people ran over, the ambulance blared, and sped off……

Ha Cheng, Air Force troop hospital.

A tall, mighty Land Rover drove into the hospital, parked in a spot, and its occupants hurriedly got out.

"San Shui, don't worry, Yang Can is fine—just overworked, rest a bit."

"Teacher Zhou, something this big happened, and you didn't tell me! The senior sister's project was my idea; her body broke from exhaustion, and I share responsibility……"

Just as I reached the hospital building entrance, outside, sirens blared, a military ambulance came wailing, pulled up to the entrance, then a stretcher vehicle was pushed out; someone took an IV bottle, someone ran to open the door.

Qin Miao glanced, seeing the person on the hospital bed still wearing a pilot's leather jacket, he was instantly stunned—this is……

"Quick, quick, quick, quick to the operating room!"

Doctor, doctor!

The scene was very chaotic, Qin Miao followed behind, watching a group of soldiers guarding the entrance; many people's eyes were red. Going up to ask at this point would easily get you beaten!

"If it turns out to be due to poor ground maintenance, I'll give them a hard slap!"

"Sigh, it might just be an accident; we who fly the Qiang-5 need to be mentally prepared. Last year, according to the statistics of our sister units, there were five Qiang-5 aircraft in total, and all of them had accidents during dive attacks……"

Qiang-5, an accident occurred during a dive attack!

Qin Miao felt heavy-hearted; these lovely pilots were using their lives to defend the motherland!

Wait a minute, our BeiDou navigation has already come out!

"I can help you solve this problem!" With that, the words blurted out.