News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: EP-3 Loss News Reports Summary

Date: April 02, 2001

"HIGH SPY COLLISION

US plane hit by Chinese fighter
TWENTY-FOUR American airmen had an amazing escape yesterday when their spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet.

The badly-damaged US plane had to make an emergency landing in southern China. A US Navy spokesman said: "The planes actually bumped into each other. The collision appeared to be an accident and the Chinese did not force our plane down."

The US EP-3 patrol aircraft, packed with electronics for listening to radio signals and monitoring radar sites, was on routine surveillance when it was intercepted by two Chinese warplanes.

It was forced to land on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, near Vietnam. The crew escaped injury. The Chinese jet is not thought to have crashed.

Colonel John Bratton, a spokesman for the US Pacific Command in Hawaii, said they did not expect problems in getting their men back.

The collision comes at a touchy time in US-China relations. The new administration of President George Bush has taken a wary tone towards Beijing. China is also worried about the prospect of US sales of high-tech weaponry to neighbouring Taiwan.

Experts say run-ins with Chinese fighters are common as US planes fly along China's coast eavesdropping on military communications.

One said: "It's very regular for American Navy planes to intrude into Chinese airspace. 'The Chinese then send up fighters and chase them out."

The EP-3 patrol plane took off from Kadena Airbase in Okinawa, Japan.

American officials said the Chinese "appeared responsive" to requests that the crew be well treated.

A White House spokesman said China was expected to hand over the airmen as soon as possible.

In 1960, US spy plane pilot Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union. He spent two years in jail before being freed in a spy swap.  "
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"April 2, 2001

Washington Contends Chinese Cannot Inspect Spy Plane
By JAMES DAO

U.S. Plane in China After It Collides With Chinese Jet (April 2, 2001)

Expanded Coverage In Depth: U.S. Foreign Policy


WASHINGTON, April 1 - Chinese fighter jets have flown dangerously close to United States reconnaissance planes over the South China Sea several times in recent months, prompting complaints from American officials to the Chinese, senior Pentagon officials said today.

The officials said it was not uncommon for Chinese jets to shadow American spy planes in that region. The one involved in the latest incident was a sophisticated, long-range maritime surveillance plane used to monitor the activities of ships, submarines and aircraft and also capable of intercepting and interpreting electronic signals from military units on land.

Because the plane, an EP-3E Aries II turboprop aircraft, is considered among the Navy's most sophisticated surveillance planes, American officials are demanding that the Chinese not board or search the aircraft without American permission.

"According to our lawyers, the aircraft enjoys sovereign immune status," said Cmdr. John Singley, a spokesman for the United States Pacific Command based in Hawaii. "This precludes foreign officials from searching, inspecting or detaining the aircraft without U.S. consent."

American officials said crews of EP-3E's are trained to destroy sensitive data and surveillance equipment if an aircraft is in danger of capture. But it was not known tonight whether the crew members in Hainan had tried to do that.

The Navy plane, equipped with a distinctive saucer-shaped antenna on its underbelly and loaded with electronic devices, was capable of monitoring Chinese military activities along the shore and in the South China Sea by intercepting and recording a wide variety of communications, including radio and radar transmissions. The plane carried no weapons, Pentagon officials said.

The United States, like other military powers, has long asserted its right under international law to patrol the high seas using ships, planes and submarines. The practice has led to conflict before at times of tension, as when North Korea seized the spy ship Pueblo in 1968 and held its crew of 82 captive for 11 months.

While the Bush administration expressed hope that the incident off the Chinese island of Hainan would not badly strain relations with China, officials said the assertiveness of Chinese pilots in recent months as they shadowed American flights had raised concerns among American commanders about potential midair collisions even before the Navy surveillance plane clipped wings with a Chinese fighter jet on Sunday.

"The intercepts by Chinese fighters over the past couple of months have become more aggressive, to the point that we felt that they were endangering the safety of Chinese and American aircraft," said Admiral Dennis C. Blair, commander in chief of the United States Pacific Command.

Though Navy officials declined to comment on the specific mission of the aircraft, they described it as "routine." Typically, EP-3's make several flights over the South China Sea a month, the officials said, often to monitor Chinese naval activities. There was no indication that the mission had any relation to heightened tensions over potential American military sales to Taiwan.

The plane made an emergency landing on Hainan shortly after the accident. American military officials said that the plane landed safely and that all 24 crew members appeared to be in good condition ó though the officials complained that the Chinese had not allowed contact with the crew members since the plane landed.

"This is a tragic military accident that could have been avoided if Chinese pilots had respected the laws of international air space," said Senator John Warner, the Virginia Republican who is chairman of the armed services committee. "China, as an emerging military power, appears in the eyes of military persons the world over very unprofessional, unless it comes forward promptly with an accurate explanation of the incident and returns our aircraft and crew."

Though numerous American reconnaissance planes have crashed or been shot down over the decades, it is rare that countries, other than American allies, have been able to look closely at nearly intact versions of those sophisticated planes.

Pentagon officials refused to comment on what kinds of classified information or equipment might be aboard the plane. But they said the United States would consider it a severe breach in diplomatic protocol for the Chinese to board or search the aircraft without American permission.

"That would be a real diplomatic issue if they boarded the plane," said a Pentagon official. "We expect the Chinese to follow all international rules in terms of the integrity of the aircraft, as well as taking care of the welfare of the crew."

Pentagon officials said the EP-3E was over international air space, at least 50 miles off the shore of Hainan Island, when the two Chinese-made F-8 fighter planes began shadowing it on Saturday night.

The Navy aircraft was part of a squadron based on Whidbey Island, Wash., but it began its mission on Saturday from Kadena air base on Okinawa, about 1,000 miles from Hainan.

The slow-moving plane, which runs on four turboprop engines, has a range of more than 3,000 nautical miles and is capable of staying in the air for more than 12 hours at a time, requiring it to carry two sets of pilots on most long-range missions.

The crew members of the EP-3E that landed on Hainan included 22 Navy personnel ó three of them women ó one Air Force member and one marine, American officials said.

Since the early 1960's, EP-3's have been flying near the borders of China, Russia and North Korea to collect a variety of electronic transmissions that have been used to analyze those countries' military activities and the sophistication of their communications systems, said Norman Polmar, a Navy analyst and author.

He said no EP-3 had ever been shot down or captured by another country. "There is a considerable amount of equipment on there that is, I would guess, superior to the Chinese military's," he said. "For them to obtain it would be a real intelligence loss."

Rear Adm. Craig R. Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld was monitoring the situation from Washington and had been in contact by telephone with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, several times today.

He said the American armed forces had not been placed on a heightened state of alert as a result of the accident.

Pentagon officials said they had no clear idea about the condition of the Navy surveillance plane. But they said the damage must have been serious for the pilot to have radioed a distress signal and then made an emergency landing on Chinese territory.

"If he thought he could get to Hong Kong or the Philippines or anywhere else, I'm sure he would have taken the opportunity," a Pentagon official said."
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"China holds U.S. crew, spy plane; Navy craft based on Whidbey

By The Associated Press and The Washington Post



A U.S. Navy surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet sent to intercept it over the South China Sea yesterday and made an emergency landing in China. The Chinese government said its fighter crashed and its pilot was missing.

In Beijing, Chinese officials, who said the U.S. crew was safe, blamed the American aircraft. They said the EP-3, which is based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, caused the collision off the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

In Honolulu, the commander of U.S. Pacific military forces said the Chinese planes were at fault and sharply criticized China for "aggressive" tactics in intercepting U.S. planes.

"It's not a normal practice to play bumper cars in the air," Adm. Dennis Blair said at Camp Smith.

The incident comes at an uneasy time in U.S.-Chinese relations. The Bush administration has taken a warier attitude toward Beijing, and the president is reportedly leaning toward selling Taiwan much of the high-tech weaponry it seeks - a sale bitterly opposed by China.

The U.S. plane landed at a military airfield at Lingshui on the southern end of Hainan. American diplomats were sent to Hainan to see the crew, said U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher.

The U.S. Pacific Command asked for the return of the crew and aircraft. The goal is to get the plane back without loss of its classified equipment.

Whether this happens sooner or later could depend not only on diplomacy but also on questions of international law.

Whose fault was the midair collision? Whose fault was it that the plane had to land on Chinese territory?

"It's fairly critical," said Tufts University international-law professor Hurst Hannum. "Once you're in the other country's jurisdiction, you have to look for some reason not to be there."

If the EP-3 was blameless, the United States could claim that China forced it to land on Hainan Island, Hannum said. But if the Chinese did nothing wrong, he added, then they could claim the aircraft "fell from the heavens, and it's ours."

President Bush had made no statement as of last night. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration was "closely monitoring" events and expected China to return the crew. "That is standard practice," Fleischer said. "We would expect them to follow it."

A State Department spokeswoman said U.S. officials have been discussing the incident with Chinese authorities in Washington and China since the collision, which took place at 9:15 a.m. in China (5:15 p.m. PST Saturday).

The U.S. plane took off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, the U.S. military said.

Crew members are part of the VQ-1 Squadron. Known as "World Watchers," the squadron does electronic surveillance in the EP-3 aircraft, Navy spokeswoman Kimberly Martin said.

Martin said the 24 crew members - both men and women - include one Marine, one Air Force member and 22 Navy personnel.

The U.S. plane was on a routine surveillance flight in international airspace when two Chinese fighters intercepted it, said Col. John Bratton, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command. Officials in Honolulu showed a map that put the collision about 80 miles southeast of Hainan, well outside the 12-mile territorial sea and airspace.

China said the incident took place about 6 miles from Hainan. The Communist nation claims most of the South China Sea as its territorial waters. That claim is rejected by countries that use the vast expanse of ocean for shipping.

"The U.S. side has total responsibility for this event," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it had made a "serious" protest.

It said two Chinese fighters were sent up to track the plane as it approached Chinese airspace. "The U.S. plane abruptly diverted toward the Chinese planes, and its head and left wing collided with one of the Chinese planes, causing the Chinese plane to crash," it said. It said rescuers were searching for the missing Chinese pilot.

But Admiral Blair blamed the Chinese fighters, which he said were similar to F-16s, fly much faster and have more maneuverability than the EP-3, a four-engine turboprop about the size of a Boeing 737.

"Big airplanes like this fly straight and level on their path; little airplanes zip around them," he said. "Under international airspace rules, the faster, more maneuverable aircraft has the obligation to stay out of the way of the slower aircraft." "