31 May Sichuan disaster-relief helicopter crash
Aviation troops Mil Mi-171 · Encountered severe weather in flight
From Chengdu Fenghuangshan Airport, Sichuan Province, China to an unrecorded destination
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 18 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Mil Mi-171
- Aircraft type
- Mil MI-171
- Category
- Helicopter · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- Unknown
- Operator
- Aviation troops
- Onboard fatalities
- 18
- Route
- From Chengdu Fenghuangshan Airport, Sichuan Province, ChinaTo not recorded
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The 31 May Sichuan disaster-relief helicopter crash occurred on 31 May 2008, when a Chinese People's Liberation Army Mi-171 helicopter carrying out disaster-relief duties for the Wenchuan earthquake suddenly encountered heavy fog and strong air currents near Yingxiu Town, Wenchuan County, in the worst-hit area, and crashed. All the passengers and crew on board, together with the crashed helicopter, were missing for more than 10 days; finally, after more than ten thousand personnel had searched continuously for 10 days, they were found on the morning of 10 June in dense forest on a high mountain near Yingxiu Town. All 18 people on board were killed.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Chinese Wikipedia article “5·31四川救災直升機失事事故” (revision 90329138, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Chinese Wikipedia article: 5·31四川救災直升機失事事故
- Article
- 5·31四川救災直升機失事事故
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 90329138 · 2025-11-28 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q10846139
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- zh Wikipedia article "5·31四川救災直升機失事事故" (page 771382, revision 90329138), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Chinese Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.