China Southern Airlines pilots attend a class at the U.S. Aviation Academy in Denton, Texas in June. (Photo/Screenshot of the U.S. Aviation Academy website)
The U.S. Aviation Academy suspended flight training for all Chinese cadets after a China Southern Airlines trainee pilot died in a crash on Sunday.
The cadet and an instructor were training aboard the twin-engine propeller aircraft when it crashed and both died, China South Airlines revealed in a statement Tuesday via its official account on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.
U.S. media said they were 22-year-old Yu Qiu, pronounced dead at the scene and 25-year-old Francesca Norris of Dallas, who was taken to hospital where she died late Sunday evening.
The academy has suspended training for all Chinese cadets after the accident and has provided psychological assistance to all of them, according to the airline.
The airline said it has sent condolences to the cadet's family and was assisting them in travel to the U.S.. In its statement, the airline said it will closely monitor the accident investigation.
The U.S. Aviation Academy did not immediately respond to Global Times on Tuesday.
According to its website, the U.S. Aviation Academy began operations in 2003, with the main campus and corporate headquarters located at the Denton Enterprise Airport.
A post in early June by the academy read that it was welcoming 26 new students from China Southern Airlines. The flight school has simulator approvals from the China Civil Aviation Authority.
Most of the aircraft at the academy were manufactured in the 1960s or 1970s and in the event of an accident the cabin door of the plane was located 1 meter behind the cadet's seat, making escape difficult, a Chinese pilot at the U.S. Aviation Academy told the Guangzhou-based Nandu Daily on condition of anonymity.
Before the deadly accident, the plane suffered malfunctions including a left engine failure on landing, according to the anonymous cadet. All the malfunctions posed a serious safety threat, the pilot said, according to Nandu Daily.
Sunday's death was not the first at the academy. In April, a Chinese cadet was found dead in the Denton campus dormitory.
Other students who spoke on condition of anonymity alleged that the U.S. academy instructors discriminated against Chinese students, news website the cover.cn reported.
The academy has two more campuses at North Texas Regional Airport near Dallas and Alliance Airport of Fort Worth, Texas.
