A Y-20 large transport aircraft of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force takes off from an air field in Central China to carry out the mission of retrieving the remains of the 11th batch of Chinese People's Volunteer Army martyrs from South Korea. Photo: Screenshot from China Central Television

A Y-20 transport aircraft of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force on Tuesday set out for South Korea to retrieve remains of 43 Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) martyrs who lost their lives during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53).

The Y-20 with the number 20048 took off from an airport in Central China on Tuesday afternoon to carry out the mission of retrieving the 11th batch of the remains of CPV martyrs from South Korea, the PLA Air Force announced in a post on its official WeChat account on Tuesday.

Recently, China's Ministry of Veterans Affairs and South Korea's Ministry of National Defense reached an agreement on the handover of the 11th batch of remains of CPV martyrs in South Korea. The South Korean side will hand over the remains of 43 CPV martyrs and related belongings to the Chinese side on Thursday, according to the PLA Air Force.

For this mission, the troops have prepared the cabin layout of the aircraft to ensure that the repatriation mission meets the highest standards, the PLA Air Force said.

"In order to welcome the heroic CPV martyrs back to their homeland with the utmost solemnity, we installed a coffin support frame on the aircraft, applied anti-collision rubber strips, hung the national flag inside the cabin, laid down a military green carpet and conducted a thorough cleaning of the entire cabin before the mission departure," said Zhang Dapeng, a member of the air force of the PLA Central Theater Command, in the PLA Air Force release.

The PLA Air Force also announced that it will deploy two J-20 stealth fighter jets to escort the remains of the CPV martyrs upon their return to Chinese airspace. 

Since 2015, the PLA Air Force has dispatched aircraft annually to South Korea to carry out repatriation missions. Starting in 2020, the PLA Air Force has sent domestically developed large transport aircraft, the Y-20, for this task for five consecutive years. This year marks the PLA Air Force's 10th mission to retrieve the remains of CPV martyrs who fell in South Korea back to their homeland, the PLA Air Force said.

Global Times