The EP-3 was flying over the South China sea at a point roughly midway between Hainan Island and the Paracel Islands when it was intercepted by two J-8II fighters. A collision between the EP-3 and one of the J-8s caused damage to the EP-3 and the loss of the J-8 and its pilot. The EP-3 was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan without permission from the PRC, and its 24 crew members were detained and interrogated by Chinese authorities until a statement was delivered by the United States government regarding the incident. The ambiguous phrasing of the statement allowed both countries to save face and defused a potentially volatile situation.[1][2]
Background
This sea area includes the South China Sea Islands, which are claimed by the PRC and several other countries. It is one of the most strategically sensitive areas in the world.[3]
The United States and the People's Republic of China disagree on the legality of the overflights by U.S. naval aircraft of the area where the incident occurred. This part of the South China Sea comprises part of the PRC's exclusive economic zone based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Chinese claim that the Paracel Islands belong to China. This claim was acknowledged by Vietnam in 1958 but it has since reversed itself to contest the claim after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The United States remains neutral in this dispute, but patrols the sea regularly with naval ships and airplanes, during what it terms freedom of navigation operations. The PRC interprets the convention as allowing it to preclude other nations' military operations within this area, but the United States does not recognize China's claim for the Paracel Islands and maintains that the Convention grants free navigation for all countries' aircraft and ships, including military aircraft and ships, within a country's exclusive economic zone.[4] Although the United States is not party to UNCLOS, it has accepted and complies with nearly all of the treaty's provisions.[5]
An EP-3E of VQ-1
A PRC Sukhoi Su-27 force is based at Hainan.[6] The island also houses a large signals intelligence facility that tracks civil and military activity in the area and monitors traffic from commercial communications satellites.[7] The United States has long kept the island under surveillance; on May 22, 1951, for example, RAFSpitfire PR Mk 19s based at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport flew photo-reconnaissance missions at the behest of U.S. naval intelligence.[8]
In the air
On April 1, 2001, the EP-3 (BuNo 156511), assigned to Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1, "World Watchers"), had taken off as MissionPR32 from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. At about 9:15a.m. local time, toward the end of the EP-3's six-hour ELINT mission, it was flying at 22,000 feet (6,700m) and 180 knots (210mph; 330km/h), on a heading of 110°, about 70 miles (110km) away from the island. Two Chinese J-8s from Hainan's Lingshui airfield approached. One of the J-8s (81194),[9] piloted by Lt. Cdr. Wang Wei,[10][11] made two close passes to the EP-3. On the third pass, it collided with the larger aircraft. The J-8 broke into two pieces; the EP-3's radome detached completely and its No. 1 (outer left) propeller was damaged severely. Airspeed and altitude data were lost, the aircraft depressurized, and an antenna became wrapped around the tailplane. The J-8's tail fin struck the EP-3's left aileron, forcing it fully upright, and causing the U.S. aircraft to roll to the left at three to four times its normal maximum rate.[3][12]
Shenyang J-881192, a different aircraft piloted by Lt Cdr Wang Wei in an earlier altercation with an American EP-3E.
The impact sent the EP-3 into a 30° dive at a bank angle of 130°, almost inverted. It dropped 8,000 feet (2,400m) in 30seconds, and fell another 6,000 feet (1,800m) before the pilot, Lt.Shane Osborn, got the EP-3's wings level and the nose up.[13] In a September 2003 article in Naval Aviation News, Osborn said that once he regained control of the aircraft, he "called for the crew to prepare to bail out".[12][13] He then managed to control the aircraft's descent by using emergency power on the working engines, allowing him to plan an emergency landing on Hainan.[14]
The Shenyang J-8 (81192) in another altercation with a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft in January 2001.
For the next 26minutes, the crew of the EP-3 performed an emergency plan which included destroying sensitive items aboard the aircraft, such as electronic equipment related to intelligence-gathering, documents and data. Part of this plan involved pouring freshly brewed coffee into disk drives and motherboards and using an axe from the plane's survival kit to destroy hard drives.[15] The crew had not been formally trained on how to destroy sensitive documents and equipment, and so improvised. As a result of the destruction, the plane's interior was later described as resembling "the aftermath of a frat party".[12]
Osborn made an unauthorized emergency landing at Lingshui airfield, after at least 15 distress signals had gone unanswered, with the emergency code selected on the transponder. It landed at 170 knots (200mph; 310km/h), with no flaps, no trim, and a damaged left elevator, weighing 108,000 pounds (49,000kg). After the collision, the failure of the nose cone had disabled the No. 3 (inner right) engine, and the No. 1 propeller could not be feathered, resulting in increased drag on that side. There was no working airspeed indicator or altimeter, and Osborn used full right aileron during the landing. The surviving Chinese interceptor had landed there 10 minutes earlier.[16]
Wang was seen to eject after the collision, but the Pentagon said that the damage to the underside of the EP-3 could mean that the cockpit of the Chinese fighter jet was crushed, making it impossible for the pilot to survive.[17][18] Wang's body was never recovered, and he was presumed dead.
Cause of collision
Area of the collision in the South China Sea.
Both the cause of the collision and the assignment of blame were disputed:
The U.S. government stated that the Chinese jet bumped the wing of the larger, slower, and less maneuverable EP-3. After returning to U.S. soil, the pilot of the EP-3, Lt. Shane Osborn, was allowed to make a brief statement in which he said that the EP-3 was on autopilot and in straight-and-level flight at the time of the collision. He stated that he was just "guarding the autopilot" in his interview with Frontline.[19] The U.S. released video footage from previous missions which revealed that American reconnaissance crews had previously been intercepted by the same aircraft.[20]
The Chinese government stated that, according to Wang Wei's wingman, the American aircraft "veered at a wide angle towards the Chinese", in the process ramming the J-8.[21][22][23][24][25]
Neither claim can be verified since the Chinese government did not release data from the flight recorders of either aircraft, both of which are in its possession.[21][22][23][24][25]
On the ground
For 15 minutes after landing, the EP-3 crew continued to destroy sensitive items and data on board the aircraft, as per protocol. They disembarked from the aircraft after soldiers looked through windows, pointed guns and shouted through bullhorns. The Chinese offered them water and cigarettes. Guarded closely, they were taken to a military barracks at Lingshui where they were interrogated for two nights before being moved to lodgings in Haikou, the provincial capital and largest city on the island. They were generally treated well. However, they were interrogated at all hours and thus suffered from lack of sleep. They found the Chinese food unpalatable as it included fish heads, but this later improved. Guards gave them decks of cards and an English-language newspaper. To pass the time and keep spirits up, Lts. Honeck and Vignery worked up humorous routines based on the television shows The People's Court, Saturday Night Live and The Crocodile Hunter. These were performed as they went to meals, the only time they were together. They gradually developed good relations with their guards, with one guard inquiring of them the lyrics for the song "Hotel California" by the Eagles.[26]
Three U.S. diplomats were sent to Hainan to meet the crew, assess their conditions and to negotiate the crew's release. The diplomats were first allowed to meet with the crew three days after the incident. U.S. officials complained about China's delays in this regard.[27]
The 24 crew members (21 men and 3 women)[28] were detained for 10 days in total and were released soon after the U.S. issued the "letter of the two sorries" to the Chinese. The crew was only partially successful in their destruction of classified material. Some of the material they failed to destroy included cryptographic keys, signals intelligence manuals, and the names of National Security Agency employees.[12] Some of the captured computers contained detailed information for processing PROFORMA communications from North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, China and other countries.[12] The plane also carried information on the emitter parameters for U.S.-allied radar systems worldwide.[12] China also discovered that the United States could track People's Liberation Army Navysubmarines via signal transmission.[12]
Letter of the two sorries
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The "Letter of the two sorries"[29] was the letter delivered by the United States Ambassador Joseph Prueher to Foreign MinisterTang Jiaxuan of the People's Republic of China to end the incident. Upon delivery of the letter, China released the detained crew and eventually returned the disassembled aircraft.[21] The letter stated that the United States was "very sorry" for the death of Chinese pilot Wang Wei (王伟) and was "very sorry" the aircraft entered China's airspace, additionally apologizing because its landing did not have "verbal clearance".[30] The United States stated that it was "not a letter of apology"–as then characterized by state-owned Chinese media outlets–but that instead it was "an expression of regret and sorrow".[2] China had originally asked for an apology, but the U.S. explained, "We did not do anything wrong, and therefore it was not possible to apologize".[31]
There was further debate over the exact meaning of the Chinese translation issued by the U.S. Embassy. A senior administration official was quoted as saying "What the Chinese will choose to characterize as an apology, we would probably choose to characterize as an expression of regret or sorrow".[32] Chinese President Jiang Zemin accepted the expression of "very sorry" as consistent with the formal apology that China had sought, and so China released the Americans thereafter.[33]
Aftermath
The crew of the EP-3 was released on April 11, 2001, and returned to their base at Whidbey Island via Honolulu, Hawaii, where they were subject to two days of debriefings.[21] The pilot, Lt. Shane Osborn, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for "heroism and extraordinary achievement" in flight. The J-8B pilot, Wang Wei, was posthumously honored in China as a "Guardian of Territorial Airspace and Waters".[21] His widow received a personal letter of condolence from US President George W. Bush.[34]
The EP-3 crew arrives at Hickam AFB in Hawaii. Pictured saluting is U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Curtis Towne.
U.S. Navy engineers said the EP-3 could be repaired in 8–12 months,[35] but China refused to allow it to be flown off Hainan island. The disassembled aircraft was released on July 3, 2001, and was returned to the United States by the Russian airline Polet in two Antonov An-124 Ruslans.[36][37] Repairs were performed at Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Georgia, for reassembly and to make it flightworthy again. The aircraft was then flown to L3 in Waco, Texas for missionization as they were the main provider of EP-3 maintenance and modernization at the time.[38] The aircraft returned to duty prior to 2013.[39]
In addition to paying for the dismantling and shipping of the EP-3, the United States paid US$34,567 for the 11 days of food and lodging supplied by the Chinese government to the aircraft's crew.[40] The Chinese had demanded one million dollars compensation from the U.S. for the lost J-8 and their pilot, but this was refused without further negotiations.
The incident occurred ten weeks after George W. Bush's presidential inauguration and was his first foreign policy crisis. Both countries were criticized after the event: the Chinese for making a bluff which was called without any real concessions from America other than the "Letter of the two sorries"; and the U.S. first for being insensitive immediately after the event and later for issuing the letter rather than being more oppositional.[41] The United States tried to be conciliatory in order to try to avoid Chinese objections to U.S. foreign policy, which became more important after the September 11 attacks and at the beginning of the War on Terror.[42]
Among the Chinese public, the incident created negative feelings towards the United States and increased feelings of Chinese nationalism.[33] Despite the fact that the destroyed aircraft carried the serial number 81194, footage of Lt Cdr Wang Wei piloting airplane J-8B bearing serial number 81192 in a similar incident earlier in the year was popularized and became a national icon for both the PLANAF and the Chinese nation.[citation needed]
After the collision, China's briefly lessened aggressiveness in monitoring of reconnaissance flights.[43] Flights of U.S. surveillance aircraft near the Chinese coastline continued as before the incident.[44][45]
Hainan is currently the home of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Hainan Submarine Base, an underground facility capable of supporting nuclear ballistic missile submarines.[46] During March 2009, Chinese ships and aircraft approached the USNS Impeccable, an ocean surveillance ship of the U.S. Navy while operating 75 miles (121km) south of Hainan. Pentagon officials characterized the actions as "aggressive" and "harassment".[47][48] In August 2014, the U.S. protested when a Chinese Shenyang J-11BH came within 10 meters (30ft) of a patrolling Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft and performed aerobatic maneuvers including a barrel roll.[49] In May 2016, the U.S. protested when two Shenyang J-11BH aircraft reportedly came within 15 meters (50ft) of a U.S. EP-3 on "a routine" patrol approximately 50 miles (80km) east of Hainan Island. China responded by demanding an end to U.S. surveillance near China.[50]
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. Dating from the earliest of hijackings, most cases involve the pilot being forced to fly according to the hijacker's demands. There have also been incidents where the hijackers have overpowered the flight crew, made unauthorized entry into the cockpit and flown them into buildings – most notably in the September 11 attacks – and in some cases, planes have been hijacked by the official pilot or co-pilot, such as with Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702.
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KE007/KAL007) was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage, Alaska. On September 1, 1983, the flight was shot down by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor aircraft. The Boeing 747 airliner was en route from Anchorage to Seoul, but owing to a navigational mistake made by the crew, the airliner drifted from its planned route and flew through Soviet prohibited airspace over underground silos with intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Soviet Air Forces treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding U.S. spy plane, and destroyed it with air-to-air missiles, after firing warning shots. The Korean airliner eventually crashed into the sea near Moneron Island west of Sakhalin in the Sea of Japan, killing all 269 passengers and crew aboard, including Larry McDonald, a United States representative. The Soviet Union found the wreckage under the sea two weeks later on September 15 and found the flight recorders in October, but this information was kept secret by the Soviet authorities until 1992, after the country's dissolution.
The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner; it is easily distinguished from the Electra by its distinctive tail stinger or "MAD" boom, used for the magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) of submarines.
An aviation accident is an event during aircraft operation that causes serious injury, death, or destruction. An aviation incident is any operating event that compromises safety but does not progress to an aviation accident. Preventing accidents and incidents is the main goal of aviation safety.
Hainan is an island province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally means "South of the Sea".
The Lockheed EP-3 is an electronic signals reconnaissance variant of the P-3 Orion, primarily operated by the United States Navy.
On 1 May 1960, a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while conducting photographic aerial reconnaissance deep inside Soviet territory. Flown by American pilot Francis Gary Powers, the aircraft had taken off from Peshawar, Pakistan, and crashed near Sverdlovsk, after being hit by a surface-to-air missile. Powers parachuted to the ground and was captured.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 2001.
The Black Cat Squadron, formally the 35th Squadron, was a squadron of the Republic of China Air Force that flew the U-2 surveillance plane out of Taoyuan Air Base in northern Taiwan, from 1961 to 1974. 26 ROCAF pilots successfully completed U-2 training in the US and flew 220 operational missions, with about half over the People's Republic of China.
Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253A was a military charter flight carrying 214 American troops bound for South Vietnam. On July 1, 1968, the plane was intercepted by Soviet jets after it unintentionally violated Soviet airspace. It was forced to land on one of the Soviet-controlled Kuril Islands with all 238 Americans aboard being detained for two days.
Shane Osborn is an American politician and naval aviator who served as the 42nd Nebraska State Treasurer from 2007 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was the U.S. pilot during the Hainan Island incident.
On 2 October 1990, a hijacked Boeing 737, operating Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301, collided with two other aircraft on the runways of the old Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport while attempting to land. The hijacked aircraft struck parked China Southwest Airlines Flight 4305 first, inflicting only minor damage, but then collided with China Southern Airlines Flight 3523, a Boeing 757 waiting to take off, flipping onto its back. A total of 128 people were killed, including seven of nine crew members and 75 of 93 passengers on Flight 8301 and 46 of 110 passengers on Flight 3523.
Língshuǐ Li Autonomous County is an autonomous county in Hainan, China. It is one of the six autonomous counties of Hainan with a postal code of 572400, and in 1999 a population of 318,691, largely made up of the Li people. Notably the beautiful Niuling (牛岭) mountain delimits the tropical area of the county. A well-known natural sight, part of the Chinese Riviera is Xiangshuiwan or Perfume bay (香水湾). Monkey Island, a popular tourist destination located in Lingshui County, is a state-protected nature reserve for macaques. Lingshui is also home to the military base where a U.S. airplane crew were held during the Hainan Island incident in 2001. In September 2010, officials signed and scheduled the construction of the largest sea world theme park in Asia. The Lingshui Li'an Harbor Ocean Theme Park signing ceremony took place at the Narada Resort in Perfume Bay and the opening is planned for 2013.
The 1954 Cathay Pacific Douglas DC-4 shootdown was an incident on 23 July 1954, when a Cathay Pacific Airways C-54 Skymaster airliner was shot down by People's Liberation Army Air Force fighter aircraft. The event occurred off the coast of Hainan Island, where the plane was en route from Bangkok to Hong Kong, killing 10 of 19 passengers and crew on board.
Events in the year 2001 in China.
Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 1 (VQ-1) is an aviation unit of the United States Navy established on 1 June 1955. Its role is aerial reconnaissance and signals intelligence. The squadron is nicknamed the "World Watchers" and is based at NAS Whidbey Island, flying Lockheed EP-3E Aries II aircraft.
On 1 July 1960, a United States RB-47H reconnaissance plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while performing signals intelligence in the Barents Sea, near the Kola Peninsula, off the Arctic coast of the Soviet Union. Four of the six crew members died. The shootdown occurred exactly two months after the far better known U-2 shootdown involving Francis Gary Powers, and added to the tensions created by that incident.
Lingshui Airbase is a military air base located on Hainan Island, China. The airbase is a highly strategic location, being part of the Southern Theater Command, and within easy flying distance of the disputed islands in the South China Sea. Hainan Island is also host to a second military air base - Sanya Air Base.
The 29th Fighter Division, also called the 29th Air Division was a fighter division of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) based in Quzhou, Zhejiang province. Headquartered at Quzhou Air Base, the unit was under the control of the Eastern Theater Command Air Force. The 29th operated Sukhoi Su-30MKK, Chengdu J-7H, and Shenyang J-8B aircraft in support of air operations in the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait. As of 2019, the division commander was Xu Xueqiang. Since the near complete abolition of divisions from the PLA command structure around 2017, the previously subordinate 85th and 87th Fighter Regiments of the 29th FD survived as the 85th and 78th Fighter Brigades, respectively.
References
Citations
↑ Tapper, Jake; Lindsey, Daryl; Montgomery, Alicia (April 13, 2001). "War of words". Salon. Archived from the original on August 6, 2022. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
1 2 Zhang, Hang (2001). "Culture and apology: The Hainan Island incident". World Englishes. 20 (3): 383–391. doi:10.1111/1467-971X.00222.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United States 
China 
