Second Chinese pilot blames U.S. for spy plane crash

April 6, 2001 Web posted at: 9:14 a.m. EDT (1314 GMT)

BEIJING (CNN) - The pilot of the second Chinese plane involved in the collision between a Chinese fighter and a U.S. surveillance plane said the U.S. plane swerved into his comrade and sent the Chinese plane plunging into the sea.

Chinese television broadcast an interview Friday with Zhao Yu, who was flying a second Chinese F-8 fighter tracking a U.S. EP-3E plane off the coast of China.

Here is the text of a translation of his comments:

"On April 1st, Wang Wei and I were on duty. At about 8:45 a.m., we took off to conduct our routine tracking mission in the airspace southeast of Hainan Island.

"Seven minutes after takeoff, we found a large plane to our left, 50 kilometers ahead. Wang Wei and I approached the plane and identified it as a U.S. EP-3-type surveillance plane. When the U.S. spy plane spotted us, it adjusted its navigation course. So we adjusted ours accordingly.

"At 9:05 a.m., it readjusted its course to 110 degrees. We readjusted ours once again so that we were flying at the same speed and the same direction as the U.S. spy plane. Our planes were on the inner side of Hainan and the U.S. plane was on the outer side.

"Two minutes later, the U.S. plane suddenly swerved at a wide angle toward our direction and collided over the plane Wang Wei was flying. I saw the nose and left wing of the U.S. plane bump into Wang Wei's plane and the left outer propeller of the U.S. plane's left wing smashed the vertical tail surface of Wang Wei's plane.

"The U.S. side if fully responsible for this collision. It was directly caused by the U.S. plane veering at a wide angle toward our plane making it impossible for our plane to avoid it. The U.S. plane severely violated flying rules, so they should hold full responsibility. It is our duty to identify any midair objects that would endanger our national security and to track them.

"As Wang Wei's comrade in arms on the same mission, I am especially worried for his safety. I hope our rescue efforts will bring him back to us. I am very grateful for the government's and the Navy's concern over his safety. I am indignant at the actions of the U.S. spy plane crashing our plane right at our doorsteps."

-- (say you're sorry Dumbya @ be. a man), April 08, 2001

Answers

Dumbya is such a man-child. Even if it isn't our fault, the important thing is to get our crew home and alleviate any increasing of anger by the Chinese.

A real man would simply swallow his pride and do what is necessary to settle the matter. Does Dumbya think our crew are actually enjoying their stay in China and don't want to come home? All he has to do is say one word, "sorry", and get on with it. Big deal!

-- (you're a fool dumbya @ grow. up), April 08, 2001.

LOL!

You liberal, communist sympathizer (or is it just plain communist?) types are hilarious. What did you expect the second pilot to say? LOL.

I wonder what the Chinese government threatened to do to his family before he agreed to say what he did? After all, it had been almost a week, why did it take him so long to tell his "story"?

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), April 08, 2001.

Chinese pilot's wife sends Bush emotional letter

April 6, 2001 Web posted at: 9:08 PM EDT (0108 GMT)

BEIJING,China (CNN) -- The wife of the missing Chinese pilot Wang Wei wrote U.S. President Bush on Friday, calling him "cowardly" for not apologizing for the midair collision of a U.S. reconnaissance plane with her husband's jet, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

"What is incredible is you and your government's apathetic attitude toward my husband's life," wrote Ruan Guoqin.

"In this serious matter with irrefutable facts and the responsibility completely resting on the U.S. side, you are too cowardly to voice an apology and have been trying to shirk your responsibility repeatedly and defame my husband groundlessly. Can this be the human rights and humanism that you have been talking about every day?"

In the emotional letter filled with national pride and love for her husband, Ruan tells Bush how she has suffered since the April 1 accident and that she's now hospitalized because of her grief.

Wang is missing and presumed dead, although a search continues. The couple have a 6-year-old son.

"I am an ordinary Chinese woman writing you this letter in tears on my sickbed," she said. "Wang Wei is everything in my life."

She said her husband's jet was "rammed by a spy plane of your country" and "the news struck me like a bolt from the blue."

"The cruel blow came all of a sudden, and it wrecked my body and mind, which resulted in my hospitalization," she said.

Ruan said her parents-in-law keep calling her to ask about the fate of their only son and that her own child keeps asking about his father.

"Our 6-year-old son has kept asking when his father will come home," she said. "My heart is aching, and I can tell them nothing. I pray and call out time and again hoping in tears that there will be a miracle."

She mentions the 24 U.S. crew members now detained on the Chinese island of Hainan after safely making an emergency landing, saying, "Their family members and American people do not have to worry about them at all."

She adds, "I cannot figure out why you sent them to spy along China's coast from such a great distance, and why they rammed my husband's plane."

Ruan also said she has heard Bush "grew up in a family filled with love" and that he appreciates family values.

"If this is true, I think you must understand what it means when an old couple loses their only son, when a tender child loses his dear father and when a young wife loses her husband," Ruan wrote. "I grieve for the loss of my beloved husband. I lament the loss of humanity in some people. Give me a reason! Bring back my husband!"

She ends by saying, "Please accept my best wishes for your family."

Chinese media Saturday began reporting Bush's expressions of regret that were made Thursday about the incident, although the tone in the media suggests an apology -- not regret -- is still needed. Chinese television did air U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's similar comments.

-- (grow up bush wimp @ be a. man for a change), April 08, 2001.

Using J's "reasoning", can anyone tell us why it took the Greeneville sub captain so long to tell HIS story? The families of nine dead Japanese citizens are wondering.

-- (dittomonkeys@re.morons), April 08, 2001.

What part of "Don't Get Too Close" don't they understand? In California if you rear-end someone, it's your fault regardless of whether or not the person in front did something stupid. The presumption is that you were following too closely. Also in boating, the faster and more manuverable ship must yield to the slower and bigger one. These jerk-offs are just a bunch of crybabies. They knew exactly what they were doing. They just screwed up.

-- Flyboy (don't@play.chicken.with.us.Americans), April 08, 2001.

I think whats being revealed in this incident is that China and America are not friends. Despite being voted for most favored nation trade status. They are showing that we cant do business with them.

This incident was staged by the Chinese military to snatch by force one of our planes. An unarmed monitoring plane with no ability to defend it self against fighter airpower. It was no accident that the planes collided, that crew was given a reason to be in fear for their lives and were trying to make an exit. The question is why does the Chinese Govt think we will believe their line of Bull.

This was an overt act of aggression against our people. The proof of it is in the way they are handling it. If this was just a traffic accident in the sky between friendly nations they would just give us a bill for damages and move on, not hold our airmen just doing their job in international airspace held for hostage.

This is more than that. the reason why that plane was there in the first place is because our military is getting very concerned that China is preparing to go to war with Taiwian some time soon. Their presence there was to monitor the facts on the ground. China is acting very belicous and it's military movements are showing so and are being watched real close. They are not behaving as friends so we are watching how they walk not what they say.

I think they are sick fools, one for thinking that confrontation with us is preferable than peace and friendship. If they didnt poise a threat to the region we would have no need to be watching their stuff so close. Lets remind every one of all the major spying incidents against the US that has occured in the last couple of years by the PRC. There is an active program going on here folks and it is not the conduct of friends toward friends. Our future generations will all suffer if cooler heads dont prevail and they dont start giving us a reason to be friends with them.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike@ conservation. com), April 08, 2001.

Why can't dumbya be man enough just to surrender to the Chinese. I hear Chinese is not as hard a language to master as English is, and besides I look good in red.

-- Be a man dumbya, forfiet our national sovereignty (to@the.chinese), April 08, 2001.

I hardly think a "surrender" is required, he just needs to quit being a child and tell them what they want to hear. We still have more than enough nukes to blow China off the face of the earth, and we aren't going to lose any by saying sorry. If he cared about our 24 people who are over there more than his stupid pride, he would do what a man would do.

-- (paranoia @ causes. wars), April 08, 2001.

Aw hell just give them Taiwan and Japan too - that would go a long way towards showing proper condolences. We may be liberal communist sympathizers, but we like to apologize as much as the next guy for something that should not be apologized for.

Yep, yep, we took a big, slow, ungainly 4-engine turboprop and chased that poor defenseless supersonic fighter jet. Yep, yep.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 09, 2001.

So, how close were they to the P3? And, they were OBVIOUSLY not paying attention. A P3 is about the size of a Boeing 707, which we all know is SO manueverable... : )

The Chinese pilot had to be basically ASLEEP if he could not avoid a ungainly plane as slow manuevering as a P3. Unless he was trying to "crowd" the big plane...

A Chinese F8 is their equivalent of an F-16... a highly manueverable and agile craft.

Something smells...

sniffin' at the wreckage...

The Dog

-- The Dog (dogdesert@hotmail.com), April 09, 2001.