Two Chinese fighters 'pursue' US spy plane

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telegraph

Two Chinese fighters 'pursue' US spy plane
Two Chinese fighter jets reportedly crossed into Taiwan's airspace in late June in pursuit of a United States spy plane.
By Malcolm Moore
7:00AM BST 26 Jul 2011

Taiwan's Defence ministry said it sent two F-16 fighters to intercept the Chinese Sukhoi-27 jets near the central line across the 113-mile wide Taiwan Strait.

The ministry said it was the first time that Chinese jets have breached its airspace since 1999 and that the two Chinese jets quickly turned around. A spokesman added that he believed the incident was "an accident" and that Taiwan had been "in full control" of the situation.

A Taiwanese newspaper, the United Daily News, said the Chinese jets had been in pursuit of a US U-2 reconnaissance plane. However, both the Taiwanese Defence ministry and the Pentagon declined to confirm the report.

China has long objected to US reconnaissance of its coastline, especially since a US spy plane crashed into a People's Liberation Army jet in 2001 near Hainan island, killing the Chinese pilot. The crew of the US plane was detained for 11 days in a diplomatic row.



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8661386/Two-Chinese-fighters-pursue-US-spy-plane.html

[Confusious]

1. Whatever happened to that plane GW gave the Chinese?

did we get it back in pieces?

[blank space]

2. You have received a fair few things back in pieces -

including drones, global hawkes etc. Anything that goes down pretty much anywhere is bought by the Chinese.
Especially the US economy, they bought that and are going to hand it back in pieces.

[MADem]

3. Yes, we got it back in chunks--had to go pick it up. It was a P-3, though, not a jet. nt

[SkyDaddy7]

4. That P-3 was much more valuable to the Chinese than a U-2...

Due to the electronics on board. I would assume the crew destroyed what they could before landing but who knows.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. This incident came up back in May.

The EP-3 that landed on Hainan Island

[MADem]

6. Yeah, the platform itself is old as the hills, the goodies inside were what counted.

Because the crew had so little time between declaring an emergency and landing, they didn't have time to get rid of everything. That was a significant intel loss.