Lieutenant provides account of crew's ordeal
| • | Home base embraces EP-3 crew |
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Chinese jet fighter veered close to the American spy plane, clipping one of the U.S. plane's four propellers and sending the Americans into a terrifying dive, the U.S. pilot and mission commander said yesterday.
Associated Press
"The first thing I thought was, 'this guy just killed us,' " Navy Lt. Shane Osborn said in his first public comments about the April 1 incident off the coast of China. "The plane snap-rolled. I remember looking up and seeing water."
Sailor David Cecka holds his 4-month-old son, Cameron, during a welcome-home ceremony at Whidbey Island, Wash.
The Chinese pilot had twice maneuvered his fighter within feet of the U.S. plane, gesturing at the American crew, Osborn said. On the third sweep, he lost control, hitting the reconnaissance plane's propellers.
The fighter broke apart, and the stricken American plane lost cabin pressure and rolled almost upside down as it headed toward the South China Sea, Osborn said early yesterday morning at Hickam Air Force Base before departing for Washington state with 23 other crew members.
"We had serious vibration problems," said Osborn, 26, of Norfolk, Neb. "That prop was still spinning with part of it missing."
Mayhem was how Senior Chief Petty Officer Nicholas Mellos, a flight engineer who was in the cockpit, described the scene as Osborn struggled to gain control of the bucking aircraft before it was too late.
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"Thank God for the training we do every day," said Mellos, 45, of Ann Arbor, Mich.
At Hickam AFB, Lt. Shane Osborn demonstrates how the EP-3E plane he was piloting dived and almost flipped over after a Chinese fighter struck it.
After getting the plane under control, the crew made an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan, scrambling to destroy secret data and spy gear before Chinese soldiers boarded the plane.
"A lot of people were in shock at that point," Osborn said. "By the time the engines shut down, they were at the door."
Osborn said the crew repeatedly radioed distress signals before landing — a point China has disputed since the incident, which it blames solely on the United States.
"We made at least 15 mayday calls," Osborn said. "I know we transmitted. I can't tell you what they heard or didn't hear."
The pilot's account sharply contradicts the Chinese government's version in other ways. China claims the EP-3E surveillance plane abruptly rammed the fighter after it was intercepted, but Osborn said he was flying straight and level, on autopilot.
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Osborn also said he had been flying away from Hainan in international airspace, not closing in on the coast as China claims, and that the United States owed no apology for the incident.
Crew members of the Navy EP-3E reconnaissance plane that collided with a Chinese fighter jet two weeks ago prepare to board a jet that will take them to their home base in Washington.
"I'm here to tell you we did it right," he said. "No apologies necessary on our part."
China yesterday called off its search for missing pilot Wang Wei, declaring him a revolutionary martyr. Osborn said he saw a parachute open after Wang's plane went down but lost track of it as he struggled with his own stricken aircraft.
"I saw another plane smoking toward the earth with flames coming out of it," Osborn said.
Chinese jets had shadowed the Americans during earlier intelligence gathering flights, but had not been as confrontational, he said.
"On other missions it was nowhere near this harassing," he said. "Previous times, they would get close to us, but not that close."
Associated Press
Osborn said the crew members were well fed and treated with respect while they were detained, but were repeatedly awakened by the Chinese for questioning, which lasted four to five hours the first night.
Navy Lt. Patrick Honeck hugs his family upon returning home after he was detained in China for about two weeks.
"The only unpleasant part was the interrogations and the lack of sleep," he said. "There were wake-up calls at all times, so I'd try to steal some sleep when I could."
China has refused to release the U.S. plane and is demanding an end to further surveillance flights along its borders. The Bush administration said such missions are legal and will continue.
