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To: carranza2 who wrote (96992)	4/5/2001 4:32:00 PM
From: JohnG	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 152472

THE Chinese fighter pilot presumed dead after a mid-air collision with a US spy plane had flown dangerously close to American aircraft before and was known as a hazard, Pentagon officials said last night. A satellite view of the US spy plane at Lingshui military airfield, Hainan Island Wang Wei, a naval officer who is thought to have ejected from his F-8 jet before it hit the sea, has been blamed by Washington for the weekend collision that has triggered a potential crisis in US-Sino relations. A Bush administration official said that Wang had been photographed by cameras mounted on American spy planes as he flew within feet of them. He said: "We have photos of pilots' faces. It was not the first time this individual had been that close to an aircraft. The number of intercepts and their aggressiveness has increased in recent weeks." The allegation seemed certain to heighten tensions. Chinese state media had already begun to laud the pilot as a hero martyred by reckless American actions. ---snip "Our airplane was operating in international air space and the crew did nothing wrong." In the last minutes before the collision, technicians on the EP-3 were likely to have been able to monitor Wang's radio transmissions to and from Hainan, as well as any conversations he had with the pilot of the jet accompanying him. Blaming Wang for the collision, Washington said: "There is no question which aircraft collided with which." The four-engine subsonic turboprop EP-3 had been flying "straight and level" while the jet was manoeuvring at supersonic speed. This was "not a great match for flying formation" and while the collision had been unintentional "it was not an accident that they were that close". Pentagon sources said that Chinese pilots were poorly trained and frequently made mistakes while flying. But the jets had continued to conduct aggressive close intercepts despite repeated American requests not to. A source quoted by the Washington Times said: "Lately we saw some unsafe flying practices coming within 30ft. This was more like flying cowboys . . . If anything goes wrong, that's not a lot of room for correction." By yesterday China had sent 48 planes and 29 ships to search for Wang. President Bush has resisted apologising because the collision took place in international air space and was not the fault of the EP-3. The nose cone, part of a wing and one of the EP-3's four engines were sheared off by the jet. It took the pilot five minutes to regain control. It was not known how many of the "emergency destruction" procedures had been followed in the 20 minutes it took to land on Hainan, from where Wang had taken off. The Pentagon claimed that crew members "successfully executed" the destruction of spy material even though their lives were in danger. But Adml Joseph Prueher, ambassador to Beijing, conceded that the Chinese would have been able to gain access to highly sensitive and top secret equipment. telegraph.co.uk /et/01/4/5/wspy05.html NOTE: I believe the US version over the Chicom version. When the US screwed up and sank that Japanese sub, or bombed the Chinese embassy, and any host of screw ups, it has apologized.