China's Navy announced today that an instructor and his student died in a Navy aircraft accident on May the 13th in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

China's Navy announced today that an instructor and his student died in a Navy aircraft accident on May the 13th in northeast China's Liaoning Province. [File Photo]

The Navy released the news on its microblog, saying that the two pilots discovered that the aircraft's engine was on fire shortly after taking off. They turned the aircraft away from villages, residential buildings, hospitals and a business area and dived into woods.

There were only 17 seconds between discovering the fire and the crash, and the aircraft was too low when the pilots ejected to deploy their parachutes.

2 Chinese pilots die in a Navy aircraft accident