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East Asia
EP-3 Spy plane secrets compromised by Chinese
2003-09-12
The crew of a Navy spy plane that landed on China’s Hainan Island in April 2001 after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet did not destroy all classified materials aboard, and it is "highly probable" that some fell into Chinese hands, Navy investigators concluded.
This was nothing a well placed cruise missle couldn’ve fixed...
The report, which was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Jane’s Defense Weekly, blamed the Chinese fighter pilot for the collision and did not fault the Navy crew for failing to complete the destruction of classified information aboard the EP-3. Specifics about the classified materials were deleted from the released version of the report, and the report did not address the possible impact of any compromise of official secrets. "The destruction of classified material was accomplished while the aircrew was probably still in shock from the aircraft collision and the subsequent rapid descent of the aircraft and with very little time prior to landing," the report said.
Good work guys/gals... way to keep your heads...
Ever been in a falling airplane?
It also found that "destruction of all classified materials onboard did not occur," and concluded that "compromise by the People’s Republic of China of undestroyed classified material on PR-32 is highly probable and cannot be ruled out." PR-32 was the mission designation of the U.S. plane.
It’d be interesting to learn what we lost... guess we’ll read about it 50 years from now.... sigh...
After the Chinese F-8 fighter struck the Navy plane’s No. 1 propeller, causing the U.S. plane to shake violently and snap-roll to the left at about a 140-degree angle of bank, the aircraft commander gave the order for the crew to prepare to bail out. Procedures do not require that destruction of classified material begin in that situation. After the No. 1 engine was shut down and the plane became more controllable, the crew was directed to "prepare to ditch," meaning they would stay with the plane as it attempted to land. Although not required at that point, the crew began to destroy classified material, the report said. Some material was jettisoned out a hatch, and equipment was smashed with an ax and other hard objects, such as metal containers. Upon landing on Hainan Island, some of the remaining classified papers were shredded.
Having been in a near-identical position once myself — a P2V, rather than a P3, a 37mm round through the wing rather than a busted propellor — I can't find any fault with their reactions. Once you've got your parachute on and you're watching the ground (or water, in this case) come closer at a rapid rate, you're not thinking real seriously about the paperwork. The cipher gear's the important stuff, and I imagine that was scrubbed first thing.
Posted by:----------<<<<-

#7  TGA! Shame on you! Do you believe we'd actually risk people to slip the Chinese some bad data? No, a thousand times no! The US doesn't act that way. Now, I DO know of a couple of instances where certain "packages" went astray, and it caused a certain group to waste more than seven years trying to do the impossible, but that was 'somewhere else', he, he he...
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-9-12 9:30:21 PM  

#6  I don't think so. We've been flying this sort of mission for better than 50 years. The Russians used to fly up and down our coasts, too, and probably others I don't know about. All flights are in international waters, and for the number of flights flown there have been only the smallest number of incidents. The Chinese broke the rules and they've probably been expecting one of their platforms to "have an accident" ever since.

And the amount of loss probably wasn't that enormous. We don't use thermite on planes, but we do use things like water-soluble paper and modularized equipment that gives you nothing when one of the modules has been dropped overboard.
Posted by: Fred   2003-9-12 9:26:47 PM  

#5  Could it be that the Chinese were getting the military secrets that... err.. they were supposed to get?
Posted by: True German Ally   2003-9-12 5:44:37 PM  

#4  Oh, yeah. Famous Chinese fighter pilot Wong Way's claim to fame. Hope the fish enjoyed their Chinese food.
Posted by: tu3031   2003-9-12 4:47:03 PM  

#3  I thought we knew that already. I seem to remember reading about it. Not what we lost, but that they weren't able to destroy everything.

They did one hell of a job trying, tho.

And China still came to Kimmee's party.
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-9-12 2:39:21 PM  

#2  "Don't crews have something akin to a thermite grenade or any flammable liquids to help destroy such equipment and material before it can be captured?"
For land based equipment, yes. A guy I used to work with told me they had thermite blocks on equipment racks in case they were over-run(Don't ask what or where). But, never, never on a aircraft. Too big a risk of accidental ignition.
Posted by: Steve   2003-9-12 1:10:35 PM  

#1  Two questions--
1.--Don't crews have something akin to a thermite grenade or any flammable liquids to help destroy such equipment and material before it can be captured?
2.--Is this the first instance of the Chinese getting US military secrets without going through the Clintons?
Posted by: Dar   2003-9-12 12:58:03 PM  

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