U.S. Crew To Inspect Spy Plane in China

ByABC News
April 29, 2001, 5:35 PM

April 29 -- U.S. officials are scheduled to fly to China Monday to inspect the U.S. surveillance plane that has been held there for four weeks after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet.

Five officials will be leaving on a commercial airline and are scheduled to start inspections of the downed spy plane on Friday.

The two countries were in a tense diplomatic standoff over the mid-air collision that occurred April 1 when a U.S. EP-3 Navy patrol aircraft, on a "routine surveillance" mission over the South China Sea, collided with a Chinese fighter jet at 9:15 a.m. local time.

The Chinese Foreign Minister, traveling in Moscow, confirmed that China would allow U.S. officials to inspect the damaged surveillance plane stranded on Hainan Island. A statement read on Chinese state TV said the U.S. had "agreed to consider making a payment to the Chinese."

Compensation in Dispute

Vice President Dick Cheney called the promise of access to the plane "constructive," but said the U.S. would not pay China compensation for the collision itself.

"Any payment would relate simply to the cost of actual recovery," Cheney said. "That is to say if we have to get a barge in, get a crane in, whatever is required by way of actually bring the airplane out. That's something we're prepared to pay for."

It's been nearly a month since the accident and American experts believe that the Chinese have used that time to carefully inspect the plane's surveillance gear.

Computer Smashed Before Plane Touched Ground

"The Chinese have already learned all they're going to learn about it," said John Pike, director of the Global Security Organization. "At this point getting the airplane back is mainly about diplomacy, not about learning intelligence secrets or protecting them."

According to the plane's crew, as they headed for a Chinese airfield, during their emergency landing, they smashed computers and threw classified manuals into the sea. One former defense official says the damage to the U.S. was limited.