A Chinese fighter jet was flying below the US EP-3 propeller plane when the spy plane banked to the left, the Washington Post said yesterday quoting Western sources in Beijing.
Briefed by US officials, the unidentified sources did not make clear who was to blame for Sunday's mid-air collision over the South China Sea that forced the US spy plane to make an emergency landing on China's Hainan island, where its 24 crew members were taken into custody.
However, the sources said the data provided by US officials seems to explain China's assertion that the incident was the fault of the US because the EP-3 moved "suddenly" causing the accident.
The accident led to the fighter's crash into the sea and the disappearance of its pilot.
Earlier accounts of the accident indicated that the EP-3 had been intercepted by two Chinese F-8s, but no public mention was made of the Chinese jet's position beneath the US spy plane, or the US plane's banking maneuver to the left.
The Western sources also said that after the bump, the spy plane fell 2,440m before the pilot succeeded in righting it.
At that point, the sources added, the US crew began destroying sensitive software and data in the plane to prevent it falling into Chinese hands.
The US spy plane, a Pentagon official said, made an extremely fast landing at Lingshui air base on Hainan, because the pilot feared the collision might have damaged his controls and that only one of his flaps (which brake the plane on descent) may have been working.
After it had come to a rest, the US plane was surrounded, then boarded by Chinese guards who escorted the 24 US airmen at gunpoint off the plane, the Western source said.
A day later, the source said, the Chinese army dispatched a cargo plane loaded with men and technical equipment from Beijing to the base to study the US aircraft.
In related matters, US Senator Richard Lugar said yesterday that the pilot of the lost Chinese jet had challenged the US plane on previous occasions.
"It appears to me on this occasion he simply exceeded his grasp," Lugar said of the Chinese aviator: "The pilot involved is apparently the same pilot who's been observed by our reconnaissance aircraft in the past."
Lugar spoke yesterday on US television. "The flight we were flying is a regular flight, known to the Chinese, known to the Indians, the Pakistanis, everyone in the area," he said. "So there were very few surprises with this lumbering plane moving along." Nevertheless, Lugar said, in recent days Chinese fliers, "and this particular pilot on several occasions," had challenged the surveillance flight.
"It is tragic for him and tragic for the Chinese and tragic for us, because it was only a miracle that our plane got down safely and the 24 Americans are still alive," Luger said.
Former Defense Secretary William Cohen said the US had previously protested the practices of Chinese interceptor pilots.
"A very strong protest was lodged back in January [over] these fighter aircraft coming within a matter of feet of reconnaissance aircraft, thereby posing a danger to all concerned. That apparently is what happened here," Cohen said.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS