Wednesday April 4 10:06 AM ET

U.S. Spy Plane Crew Destroyed Data, Officials Say

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The crew of a U.S. spy plane that landed in China destroyed all the sensitive reconnaissance data aboard before the aircraft was taken over by the Chinese military, defense officials said on Wednesday.

``The crew was able to complete their destruction procedures,'' one of the officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. The Pentagon (news - web sites) earlier expressed fear that sensitive material could have been compromised after the four-engine plane collided with a Chinese fighter, then landed on Hainan Island on Sunday.

The defense officials did not provide details, but said that the 24-member crew of the EP-3 surveillance plane had been trained to erase computer-stored material and make secret equipment aboard useless in such an emergency.

Despite demands by President Bush (news - web sites), China is still holding the damaged plane and the 21 men and three women who were aboard when it landed following the mid-air collision.

China on Wednesday berated the United States for its ''arrogance'' and ``repeated errors'' over the stranded spy plane and crew and insisted again on an apology from Washington.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Answers

That's good to hear, so far. I do wonder whether it makes the crew any more vulnerable. They certainly can't spit backe very piece of information, but now they are the only link to what the Chinese might hope to learn. Also, I hope it was more than just the data that was destroyed, and that there is little left to reverse engineer.

Also, can't help wondering what the Chinese think they must do to save face, and whether they had a plan in mind (for instance, did they clip our plane on purpose or was the Chinese pilot just careless).

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Let's just hope that these men and women were up to date with their SERE training. Especially the RE part.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

As for the crew being more vulnerable, I don't see how. they are trained to use and destroy the equipment, but not to build or create. Fixing it is limited as well, depending on the extent of the destruction.

Good to hear that they were successful in that regard.

I sure hope they are released soon!

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Brooks, I read somewhere that Chinese pilots can have as little as 100 hours in the air per year. That's not very much. Our pilots have at least 200 hours/year. It's been speculated that the Chinese pilots were ordered to be aggressive, maybe even force the plane to the base and down, give them a scare anyway--which they've been doing for a long time. The Russians used to do this too when they poured money into their military--only their pilots were better trained and more experienced. It's not everyone who can be a Blue Angels pilot--most don't have the skill to fly so close. (Which is why you sometimes see spectacular footage of mid-air collisions at air shows.)

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001