Lin Biao incident

Lin Biao incident

A Hawker Siddeley Trident, similar to the aircraft involved
Occurrence
Date	13 September 1971 (1971-09-13)
Summary	Cause disputed: Fuel starvation (Chinese government) Controlled flight into terrain, possibly due to pilot error (Soviet medical experts)
Site	Near Öndörkhaan, Mongolian People's Republic
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident 1E
Operator	People's Liberation Army Air Force
Registration	B-256
Flight origin	Qinhuangdao Shanhaiguan Airport, Hebei, China
Destination	Soviet Union
Passengers	5
Crew	4
Fatalities	9 (all)
Survivors	0

This article or section may need to be cleaned up or summarized because it has been split from Lin Biao.

The Lin Biao incident (Chinese: 九一三事件) was a plane crash at 3 a.m. on 13 September 1971 involving Lin Biao, the Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. Everyone on the plane, including Lin and several members of his family, died when the aircraft impacted Mongolian terrain.^[1] Lin Biao was allegedly attempting to defect to the Soviet Union after a failed plot to assassinate Mao Zedong. Following Lin's death, there has been widespread skepticism in the West concerning the official Chinese explanation, while forensic investigation conducted by the USSR, who recovered the bodies following the crash, has confirmed that Lin was among those who died in the crash.^[2]