Friday May 4 4:22 PM ET
U.S. Spy Plane Deemed Flyable

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Navy spy plane on China's Hainan island could be repaired and flown home, U.S. officials said Friday after American technicians completed three days of inspections.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said privately that he prefers that it be flown off the island, but China has indicated to American officials in Beijing that it would not permit that, according to two defense officials who discussed the matter on condition they not be identified.

An alternative would be to partially disassemble the four-engine turboprop plane and transport it by barge or aircraft.

It was unclear Friday whether the Bush administration would press Beijing for permission to fly it home.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, ``We want our aircraft back as soon as possible. We continue our discussions with the Chinese on the return of the aircraft.''

Rumsfeld was expected to consult with Adm. Dennis Blair, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, on Saturday before deciding how to proceed. The Lockheed Martin team that inspected the plane was heading to Blair's headquarters in Hawaii on Saturday to submit its findings, officials said.

At stake for the United States, aside from the practical issue of cost, is the political value of ending this contentious episode with a dignified departure rather than being forced to cart off the prized plane in pieces.

China, of course, sees it differently since it contends that the Navy EP-3E Aries II was to blame for colliding with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea, leading to the fighter pilot's death.

China also strongly objects to the kind of surveillance flights that the EP-3E was conducting off its southern coast. It held the EP-3E's 24-member crew for 11 days after they made an emergency landing at the Lingshui naval air base on Hainan on April 1. There apparently have been no U.S. surveillance flights in that area since, although the Pentagon (news - web sites) insists such flights will be resumed.

The collision damaged two of the surveillance plane's engines and one of its four propellers. It also caused the plane's nose cone to break off, and pieces of metal punctured parts of the fuselage.

Rumsfeld said April 13 that there was damage also to the ailerons, the two movable flaps on the wings that are used to control the plane's rolling and banking movements, as well as to other control surfaces.

The plane, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is about the size of a Boeing 737 commercial airliner. It was packed with sensitive electronic eavesdropping equipment used to collect intelligence on China's military. U.S. officials have said they believe the EP-3E crew managed to destroy the most sensitive information and equipment before they left, but that China probably has gained some valuable insights.

Before the five-member Lockheed Martin team began inspecting the plane in detail on Wednesday it was not known whether it had sustained structural damage that would make it unsafe to fly. The inspection team reported on Friday after completing their work that it could be flown, although U.S. defense officials said it was too early to know how extensive the repairs might be.

The inspection took one day longer than originally planned because on Thursday the Chinese military refused to provide the electric power that the U.S. technicians requested in order to run the plane's on-board electronics, officials said. On Friday the Americans received full cooperation and their six hours of work went smoothly, said Lt. Cmdr. Terry Sutherland, a Pentagon spokesman.

If the $80 million plane is repaired and flown off the island it most likely would go first to Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa, officials said Friday. That is where the EP-3E began its surveillance mission and where some of the 10 remaining planes in the EP-3E fleet are stationed.

The damaged EP-3E was part of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 1, nicknamed the ``World Watchers,'' whose home base is Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001

Answers

Y'know? the REAL pistol here is that (and WildWeasel could attest tot this if he were over here) INTERNATIONAL LAW REQUIRED that the Chinese provide power, and water to the crew, and allow the US to have access to the plane to repair it and fly it out.

PERIOD!

The US used to have to do this for Russian planes in alaska, and we had it done for us in Viet Nam after the end of the war.

This is SO TOTALLY outside the Law.....

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2001