EP-3E in China

April 2, 2001

I used to fly those planes when they were based out of Guam. I'm trying to find out now if anyone I know is on that crew.

Man, this is a bad scene.

How about an extra prayer for those guys. They need all the help they can get.

General Lee 01 · April 2, 2001

Yeah, that's bad. I don't mean to insult the Military, Navy, and Army. But these incidents are looking Embarassing to the U.S.

First, 1 of our Subs takes out a Japanese Civilian boat. (IMO, that kinda "ignorant" behavior shouldn't be tolerated in the NAVY.)

Now, (The details I'm getting are sketchy) an American Plane Tangles with a (was it Japanese or Chinese?) Plane. What exactly happened? I heard they were supposed to inercept eachother, or something like that.

April 2, 2001

What happens is, the EP-3E flies off the coast of China, conducting a surveillance mission. The Chinese typically send fighters up to look at our plane and "escort" it to ensure that we are unarmed, and don't go into their airspace. Sometimes the planes are very close. here, they hit each other. It was most likely an accident and could be attributed to weather, tubulence, who knows.

Zane · April 2, 2001

This is just too bad

General Lee 01 · April 2, 2001

So in other words, the Chinese don't trust us, so they send one of their own to make sure we don't try to attack China????

Did the Chinese Pilotcrew survive.

April 2, 2001

The Chinese don't trust us and we don't trust them. They are still looking for the Chinese F-8 pilot. IMO, he didn't make it or someone would have picked up on his emergency beacon.

MountaineerTom · April 3, 2001

My thought are with them.

TheScaryGuy · April 4, 2001

I think the chinese did it on purpose to send us a message. All I can say is bush better get them home and theri better not be a scratch on them. Or china should have to suffer concequences for every mark on them.

General Lee 01 · April 4, 2001

Hey Friz,

Have you found out if you personally knew any of the crew members?

General Lee 01 · April 4, 2001

I thought we and china were "on the same Page".

Kansas Kid · April 4, 2001

I don't doubt in the least that this is an attempt by China to test the new administration. Those guys better be delievered home in the same shape as they were before, and soon.

My thoughts are with those men.

April 4, 2001

General, I did find a crew list at CNN.com and none of my buds are on it.

To answer your other question, the U.S. and China have always had somewhat strained relations. We try to give them good trade deals, etc., but their human rights policies are bad. We didn't like the Communist takeover of Hong Kong, either, but there was nothing we could do. Now we are considering selling more weapons to Taiwan, which China opposes. They are using the crew and the plane for leverage in this arms deal, IMO.