China, US military planes come within 305 metres in ‘unsafe encounter’ over South China Sea
Incident believed to be inadvertent, US official says
A US Navy P-3 plane and a Chinese military aircraft came close to each other over the South China Sea in an incident the US navy believes was inadvertent, a US official said on Thursday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft came within 305 metres of each other on Wednesday in the vicinity of the Scarborough Shoal, between the Philippines and the Chinese mainland.
The official added that such incidents involving Chinese and American aircraft were infrequent, with only two having taken place in 2016.
The US aircraft was “on a routine mission operating in accordance with international law”, US Pacific Command said.
“On February 8, an interaction characterised by US Pacific Command as ‘unsafe’ occurred in international air space above the South China Sea, between a Chinese KJ-200 aircraft and a US Navy P-3C aircraft,” it said.
The KJ-200 is a propeller airborne early warning and control aircraft based originally on the old Soviet-designed An-12.