One person was killed and two others were injured after a fighter jet crashed in central China on Thursday (Jun 9), according to state media.
The Xinhua news agency shared a video of the crash site online, showing flames shooting black smoke into the air from a street in Xiangyang.
According to state media CCTV, the plane, an Air Force J-7, "had an accident during training and fell in the vicinity of an airport ... causing damage to private homes"
The cause of the crash in Xiangyang, Hubei province, is being investigated, CCTV reported.
The pilot reportedly parachuted to safety and was taken to the hospital with the other injured.
The accident appeared to have entirely flattened several buildings.
The tragic event adds to China's growing number of plane crashes.
A navy plane crashed on the island province of Hainan in 2019, killing two pilots.
A civil plane crashed in the southern province of Guangxi in March this year, killing 132 people in China's worst flying catastrophe in decades.
The China Eastern aircraft MU5375 was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou when it mysteriously crashed into a mountaintop at a height of 29,000 feet.
Parts of the Boeing 737-800 were strewn across scorched mountain slopes. State media reported seeing burned remains of identity cards and wallets.
Brief highway video footage from a vehicle's dashcam purportedly showed a jet plunging to the earth at an angle of roughly 35 degrees off vertical, according to Chinese media.
According to state media, the situation is "grim" and the potential of all passengers dying cannot be ruled out.
According to state media reports, the accident site was surrounded on three sides by mountains, with just one narrow trail providing access.
Excavators were clearing a way to the crash site on Tuesday, according to state television.
Earlier, People's Daily video footage showed search and rescue teams and paramilitary forces mounting tree-covered hillocks and posting markings wherever wreckage was discovered.
The last commercial airliner catastrophe in China occurred in 2010, when a Henan Airlines Embraer E-190 regional plane crashed in northeast China, killing 44 of the 96 passengers on board.
The Chinese civil aviation authority has not yet determined the cause of the event and has stated that an inquiry is underway.
According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. authorities suspect someone on board purposely wrecked the American-made Boeing 737-800, citing a source familiar with the preliminary investigation.
