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Chinese jet wanted to open fire SPY PLANE STANDOFF 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 today. Pilot Zhao Yu was refused permission and instead manoeuvred 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 in the southern province of Hainan for more than a week. The sources also told the English language 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. On Friday, Zhao told Chinese television he and fellow pilot Wang Wei 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 eight 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. The source said this 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." The sources said after the collision the US plane attempted to fly northeast, away from China, but Zhao forced it to land in Hainan. When the American 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," teh paper reported. "The officer threw the airman to the ground, enabling the PLA (People's Liberation Army) to enter."

-- Anonymous, April 08, 2001

Answers

Hard to know how much of this is face-saving bluster on the part of the other pilot. I'm not finding it at all credible that our particular plane would elect to bodycheck another plane in midair like that.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2001

You're right, the pilot of our plane would never jeopardize the people or equipment in that plane by making a sudden turn into the fighter plane on pupose. Quite the opposite. The collision likely happened for one of two reasons. Either the fighter was so close that the American pilot couldn't tell he was going to hit it when he start a turn away from the Chinese coast, or the fighter was attempting to do a "hot nose" scare maneuver on our plane and botched it up by hitting us, then his buddy lied about what happened.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2001

Gordon, I'm going with your Alternative No. 2.

Just guessing, but I figure not too many expendable parts on the outside of a plane, unless we had reason to believe we were about to be attacked anyway.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2001