Saturday, April 7, 2001

By Mark Oliva, Okinawa bureau

Former crewmembers from Navy reconnaissance planes are downplaying fears about loss of an edge when it comes to intelligence capabilities aboard the EP-3 Aries II planes being held on China’s Hainan Island.

The plane and crew are from the Navy’s VQ-1 squadron, based at Whidbey Island, Wash., and deployed to Kadena Air Base. Requests for interviews with current EP-3 crews on Kadena were denied by U.S. Forces Japan officials.

Dallace Marable, a Navy petty officer third class with VQ-1 from 1992-95, weighed in on the mid-air collision between an EP-3 Aries II reconnaissance plane and a Chinese F-8 fighter over the South China Sea.

Marable countered fears that Chinese intelligence struck a gold mine when the plane landed on China’s Hainan Island following the collision.

"Count out the pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, and probably the radio (operator), which leaves 20 people with 20 minutes to do whatever needed to be done," Marable speculated in an e-mail response to a Stripes interview. "Sounds to me like there was plenty of time to rip out everything that didn’t keep the plane in the air."

Marable said landing the plane at the Chinese airfield might have been the only option for the crew. Asked if crews are given orders to ditch planes at sea instead of landing in potentially threatening countries, he said it’s a question only the crew could answer.

"That’s a question that is too easy to answer when you are not faced with that decision," Marable said. "I would say given the picture as a whole, they did the right thing."

Dean Horvath, a retired Navy Chief Warrant Officer-3 intelligence analyst who retired in 1998 after 22 years of service that included more than 1,600 flying hours aboard the EP-3, said loss of life would have happened with ditching at sea.

Bailing out would have spread the crew over many square miles of ocean, Horvath said, and if life rafts were not dropped in advance of a planned ditching, crew members would have difficulty reaching one of the two 12-person life rafts carried aboard the aircraft.

"Chances of everybody navigating to one (raft) in open ocean are not good, and given the proximity to Hainan Island, any survivors would have still ended up in Chinese custody."

Marable said there would be little an EP-3 crew could do to avoid the types of aggression the United States is alleging occurred in international airspace. This type of plane is designed to move slowly, and carries no defensive capabilities to ward off threats.

He described the EP-3 as a "very slow moving four engine turbo-prop aircraft. Its normal cruising speed is probably very close to the stall speed of the F-8. This EP-3E does not carry weapons on its wings, or any external surface. P-3s worry about hitting small birds, and yet the pilot decided to "ram" into another airplane? I think not."

Christopher Hussey was a petty officer third class who flew from 1994-98 on an ES-3A, a decommissioned tactical reconnaissance plane.

From his experience, crews account for risks and emergency procedures in case of such an emergency. And it includes safeguarding the intelligence.

"Each crew undergoes extensive training for operations in these times, and I feel that the preparations are adequate and that each crewmember understands their role," Hussey said.

Horvath said he is satisfied that the crew is safe, and appreciates the political dialogues now under way for the return of the crew and aircraft.

"I much prefer the wrangling of politicians and diplomats (rather) than visions of military funerals and honor guards," he said.

Wayne Specht in Misawa contributed to this report.

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