[Accident Report] PLAAF JH-7 accident on 20 September 1999 in China

(Disclaimer: I wrote the following report last year (2004). Some URLs may have become dead links now (April 2005).)

An article about the JH-7 at
http://military.china.com/zh_cn/critical3/27/20040910/11873479.html
reported:

On 20 September 1999, 11 days before the 50th anniversary of the PRC National Day military parade in the capital Bei Jing, one of the six JH-7s to fly in arrow formation at the parade crash-landed. It landed without the front landing gear fully lowered, and damaged its nose.
It was repaired before the parade.

A Chinese article about the China Aviation Industry 603rd Research Institute, or Xi An Aircraft Design Research Institute, and dated 2002.12.07 at
http://www.zaobao.com/special/newspapers/2002/12/others071202b.html
reported:

After their training mission, the concerned JH-7 was the second of two or more aircraft that landed.
Its pilot and navigator weren’t wounded.
The mechanics repaired it in three days.

Normally, the repair could take up to two months, but they couldn’t exchange the aircraft, because its serial number had been submitted to the central military committee; they had trained for the formation for one year and 2,000 sorties; and they may not maintain the same precision if they substituted a new aircraft.
An aircraft structure expert/chief designer was flown in to direct the emergency repair.