Fighter pilot injured in crash is back in action

Commander Cao Xianjian, a top jet fighter pilot of the PLA Navy, said he is looking forward to taking off from the deck of the nation's first domestically developed aircraft carrier, which is currently under construction.

"I am eager to operate from the new carrier. It must be more advanced and stronger than the CNS Liaoning," he said, referring to China's first carrier. "Now we are busy honing our combat capabilities and skills to become good carrier-based pilots as soon as possible," he told China Daily before traveling to Beijing as a delegate to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which opens on Wednesday at the Great Hall of the People.

Cao, 36, a native of East China's Shandong province, has served 14 years in the People's Liberation Army and is qualified to fly seven types of aircraft, but it was a serious accident that launched him to national prominence.