US China Plane Collision: A US Navy spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet near the Chinese coast on Sunday, crashing into rivers below.
A US Navy spy plane on a routine surveillance mission collided with a Chinese fighter jet that was closely tailing it.
The American plane made an emergency landing in China, and the US announced it was looking for the 24 crew members to return immediately. The advanced aircraft and all of its intelligence equipment are claimed to be in good shape.
The mid-air collision occurred roughly 50 miles southeast of China’s Hainan Island, in international waters, according to American officials.
The EP-3E aries ii aircraft, which had taken off from an American air base in Okinawa, Japan, issued a mayday call but managed to land safely on the island.
This isn’t the first occurrence, as nearly two decades ago, a Chinese fighter jet and a US Navy surveillance plane collided in the sky over the South China Sea. The pilot of the Chinese fighter jet was killed when it crashed. The damaged American airliner landed in China. The two sides were stuck in a standoff for the next 11 days before China freed the US air crew. Although the situation did not grow into a larger conflict, it had the potential to do so.
According to reports, the Chinese plane went down in the water below in the latest occurrence.
A search for the pilot is ongoing, according to a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, and Chinese state television broadcasted an angry message on Sunday night, accusing the United States of full responsibility for the incident.
However, the commander-in-chief of the United States Pacific Command noted that in recent months, Chinese planes had been more aggressive in tailing American military aircraft. Even the United States has expressed its displeasure. He claims that playing bumper cars in the air is not a common occurrence.
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President’s advisers in Washington, who were dealing with a delicate military event with the Chinese for the first time, went to great measures to avoid assigning responsibility. Instead, they turned their attention to an airfield in the Hainan city of Lingshui, where the damaged plane was parked on the tarmac.
It was unknown whether the crew members were still on board. One administration official stated, “The question now is do we have access to the crew, when do we get the crew back, and how do we get the aircraft back?”
This will put everyone’s ability to stay calm and work things out to the test. The White House announced that diplomats from the US embassy in Beijing and other US officials stationed in China would travel to Hainan to escort the crew members out of the country and ensure that the Chinese did not inspect or remove any US equipment from the plane.
It was unclear whether the Americans wiped any data or attempted to disable any of their equipment. The event occurred at a particularly delicate time in Washington’s relationship with Beijing.
The US president is expected to make a decision on whether to sell sophisticated arms and radar equipment to Taiwan in the coming weeks, and how the two countries handle this incident could influence the administration’s internal debate over what kind of technology to provide to the Taiwanese.
Meanwhile, Chinese officials are likely to use the incident to assess the present US administration. They are already irritated by what they perceive to be a harder stance toward China. One who sees China first and foremost as a military adversary, then as a trading partner.
Source: Daily Post.
