Pilot wanted to shoot US plane

"It would have been an act of war, whereas the collision was an accident."

Chinese source to the `South China Morning Post'

A Chinese fighter pilot requested permission to shoot down a US spy plane after seeing it collide with his comrade's jet, a Hong Kong newspaper said yesterday.

Pilot Zhao Yu (趙宇) was refused permission and instead maneuvered to force the American plane, which was attempting to fly away from China, to land at an airbase, the South China Morning Post quoted Chinese sources as saying.

The 24 crew members of the US crew and their EP-3 Aries surveillance plane have been detained on the southern island of Hainan for more than a week.

The sources also told the paper that when the American plane landed at the Lingshui airbase, a Chinese officer wrestled a US airman to the ground to gain access to the craft.

Zhao told Chinese television on Friday that he and fellow pilot Wang Wei (王偉) had been tracking the spy plane closely in their fighter jets when the larger aircraft veered abruptly, smashing into Wang's plane.

Wang parachuted from his stricken jet, but has been missing, presumed dead, since the collision nine days ago.

The Post's source said, however, that after the collision, in international air space, Zhao radioed to military ground control for permission to shoot down the spy plane, which was refused.

"The officials at ground control were cool-headed," one source told the paper. "It would have been an act of war, whereas the collision was an accident."

After the collision, the US plane attempted to fly northeast, away from China, the sources said, but Zhao forced it to land in Hainan.

When the US plane landed, its crew refused to allow the Chinese onto the craft without US diplomats present, the sources added.

"Then a senior officer arrived, walked up the stairs and wrestled a US crew member guarding the entrance. The officer threw the airman to the ground, enabling the PLA [People's Liberation Army] to enter," the paper reported.

In Washington yesterday, US President George W. Bush warned that Chinese-US relations could be damaged if China continued to hold the 24 crew members of the crippled spy plane.

"Every day that goes by increases the potential that our relations with China could be damaged," Bush said, reiterating an apparently hardening line taken on Sunday by senior US officials.

Meanwhile, in Hainan, US officials visited the crew yesterday evening for only the fourth time.

"We are glad to report they are in excellent health, their spirits are extremely high and we had a good conversation for about 40 minutes as a group," US Defense Attache Brigadier-General Neal Sealock said.

He made no reference to his statement earlier in the day that he hoped China would agree to "unfettered," twice-daily access beginning yesterday.