SmilingJack
05-28-2001, 09:19 PM
China OKs Craft To Return Spy Plane
BEIJING, May 28, 2001
(AP) China has agreed to let the United States take apart its stranded spy plane and bring it home aboard a commercial cargo aircraft, the Foreign Ministry said Monday night.
The U.S. would be permitted "in principle" to send an Antonov-124 to pick up the EP-3 Aries II plane, ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in a brief statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.
Zhu did not say when the plane would be allowed to come. Consultations would continue on the details, he said. There was no immediate reaction from Washington on the Foreign Ministry statement.
The announcement marks a step forward in the painstaking negotiations to end the standoff over the spy plane, stuck at a Chinese air base on the southern island of Hainan since colliding with a Chinese fighter jet above the South China Sea on April 1. The Chinese plane and its pilot were lost and the EP-3 made what China called an unauthorized emergency landing at the air base. China held the plane's 24 crew members for 11 days before letting them fly home.
Zhu last week said China would let the U.S. have the damaged plane back, but said flying it out would be "impossible" — a likely attempt to make the removal process as expensive and inconvenient as possible.
U.S. technicians who inspected the plane earlier this month said it could be made air worthy and Washington officials say they have continued to push Beijing to be allowed to fly the plane out.
Using a cargo plane to take out the EP-3, which is about the size of a Boeing 737 passenger jet, could be the next best option.
The plane's wings and tail section could be placed alongside the fuselage aboard one or two giant civilian cargo aircraft, possibly hired from a Ukrainian airline. The pieces could later be reassembled and the plane returned to spy duty.
U.S. officials said China originally refused to consider allowing a cargo plane to land at Lingshui air base, fearing the runway wouldn't be able to handle the massive aircraft's weight. That could have forced the plane to be chopped up and crated out, condemning the $80 million aircraft to the scrap heap.
The incident put a damper on relations with the new administration of President Bush just as the sides were feeling each other out. With a host of other issues pressing on relations, both sides have said they wanted an early resolution of the matter.
The U.S. plane was eavesdropping on Chinese military communications from international air space when the collision happened. China blames the U.S. plane for causing the crash and has demanded the U.S. apologize. Beijing has also insisted that U.S. surveillance flights off its coast be stopped, something Washington has refused.
The U.S. says the smaller Chinese plane hit the lumbering EP-3 and Washington hasn't apologized. Instead, Bush approved a letter saying America was "very sorry" for the Chinese pilot's death and for the U.S. plane's landing without China's permission.
China's desire not to been seen as caving in to U.S. pressure may have dragged out negotiations on the plane's return.
-from www.cbsnews.com (http://www.cbsnews.com)
To tell you the truth, I forgot that China still had the spy plane.
------------------
-Will
BEIJING, May 28, 2001
(AP) China has agreed to let the United States take apart its stranded spy plane and bring it home aboard a commercial cargo aircraft, the Foreign Ministry said Monday night.
The U.S. would be permitted "in principle" to send an Antonov-124 to pick up the EP-3 Aries II plane, ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in a brief statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.
Zhu did not say when the plane would be allowed to come. Consultations would continue on the details, he said. There was no immediate reaction from Washington on the Foreign Ministry statement.
The announcement marks a step forward in the painstaking negotiations to end the standoff over the spy plane, stuck at a Chinese air base on the southern island of Hainan since colliding with a Chinese fighter jet above the South China Sea on April 1. The Chinese plane and its pilot were lost and the EP-3 made what China called an unauthorized emergency landing at the air base. China held the plane's 24 crew members for 11 days before letting them fly home.
Zhu last week said China would let the U.S. have the damaged plane back, but said flying it out would be "impossible" — a likely attempt to make the removal process as expensive and inconvenient as possible.
U.S. technicians who inspected the plane earlier this month said it could be made air worthy and Washington officials say they have continued to push Beijing to be allowed to fly the plane out.
Using a cargo plane to take out the EP-3, which is about the size of a Boeing 737 passenger jet, could be the next best option.
The plane's wings and tail section could be placed alongside the fuselage aboard one or two giant civilian cargo aircraft, possibly hired from a Ukrainian airline. The pieces could later be reassembled and the plane returned to spy duty.
U.S. officials said China originally refused to consider allowing a cargo plane to land at Lingshui air base, fearing the runway wouldn't be able to handle the massive aircraft's weight. That could have forced the plane to be chopped up and crated out, condemning the $80 million aircraft to the scrap heap.
The incident put a damper on relations with the new administration of President Bush just as the sides were feeling each other out. With a host of other issues pressing on relations, both sides have said they wanted an early resolution of the matter.
The U.S. plane was eavesdropping on Chinese military communications from international air space when the collision happened. China blames the U.S. plane for causing the crash and has demanded the U.S. apologize. Beijing has also insisted that U.S. surveillance flights off its coast be stopped, something Washington has refused.
The U.S. says the smaller Chinese plane hit the lumbering EP-3 and Washington hasn't apologized. Instead, Bush approved a letter saying America was "very sorry" for the Chinese pilot's death and for the U.S. plane's landing without China's permission.
China's desire not to been seen as caving in to U.S. pressure may have dragged out negotiations on the plane's return.
-from www.cbsnews.com (http://www.cbsnews.com)
To tell you the truth, I forgot that China still had the spy plane.
------------------
-Will