2001 aviation accident between aircraft of the US and China
The
Hainan Island incident
occurred on April 1, 2001, when a
United States Navy
EP-3E ARIES II
signals intelligence
aircraft and a Chinese
J-8II
interceptor
jet collided mid-air, resulting in an international dispute between the United States and China (PRC).
The EP-3 was operating about 70 miles (110 km) away from the PRC island province of
Hainan
, as well as about 100 miles (160 km) away from the China military installation in the
Paracel Islands
, when it was intercepted by two J-8 fighters. A collision between the EP-3 and one of the J-8s caused a PRC pilot to go missing (later presumed dead); the EP-3 was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan without approved permission from the Chinese authorities. The 24 crew members were detained and interrogated by Chinese authorities until a statement was delivered by the United States government regarding the incident. The exact phrasing of this document was intentionally ambiguous and allowed both countries to save face while defusing a potentially volatile situation between the United States and the People's Republic of China.
[1]
[2]
Background
[
edit
]
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 military 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]
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,
RAF
Spitfire 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
[
edit
]
On April 1, 2001, the EP-3 (BuNo
156511
), assigned to Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1, "World Watchers"), had taken off as Mission PR32 from
Kadena Air Base
in
Okinawa
, Japan. At about 9:15 a.m. local time, toward the end of the EP-3's six-hour
ELINT
mission, it was flying at 22,000 feet (6,700 m) and 180 knots (210 mph; 330 km/h), on a heading of 110°, about 70 miles (110 km) 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]
The impact sent the EP-3 into a 30° dive at a bank angle of 130°, almost inverted. It dropped 8,000 feet (2,400 m) in 30 seconds, and fell another 6,000 feet (1,800 m) 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]
For the next 26 minutes, 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 (200 mph; 310 km/h), with no
flaps
, no
trim
, and a damaged left
elevator
, weighing 108,000 pounds (49,000 kg). 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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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 Navy
submarines
via signal transmission.
[12]
Letter of the two sorries
[
edit
]
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 Minister
Tang 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?
) 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
[
edit
]
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]
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 later 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.
After the collision, China's briefly lessened aggressiveness in monitoring of reconnaissance flights.
[43]
As of 2011, 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 (121 km) 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 (30 ft) 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 Chinese
Shenyang J-11BH
aircraft reportedly came within 15 meters (50 ft) of a U.S. EP-3 on "a routine" patrol approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of Hainan Island. China responded by demanding an end to U.S. surveillance near China.
[50]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
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Sources
[
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]
Further reading
[
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]
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