Techs, Pentagon work to form
plan
for transporting EP-3 back to U.S.
By Mark Oliva, Stars and
Stripes
Lockheed Martin’s assessment team is in Hawaii plotting moves to
bring the crippled EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance plane back from China.
A five-man team wrapped up several days of plane inspections on
China’s Hainan island and returned to Hawaii on Saturday, said Navy Cmdr. Rex Totty,
spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command. Members began consultations with other Lockheed Martin
experts, and military officials from PACOM and the Navy’s U.S. Pacific Fleet. The
military’s solution as to how to retrieve the Navy EP-3E held by China for more than
a month is still being decided.
A U.S. crew on April 1 made an emergency landing at Langshui airfield
on Hainan island after the EP-3E and a Chinese F-8 fighter jet collided over the South
China Sea. The incident sparked a diplomatic stand-off, where the 24 crewmembers were
detained and questioned by Chinese authorities for 12 days before their release to the
United States.
However, diplomats continue to spar over the $80 million plane –
still in Chinese possession – filled with top-secret intelligence-gathering equipment
and data. Satellite photos show Chinese officials boarded the plane in the days that
followed. U.S. officials claim that most data and equipment was destroyed by the crew
during the descent and landing in China, but conceded some intelligence was compromised.
Much remains in question.
The inspection team’s reports might give military officials
their first pieces of hard evidence of what was compromised and what was destroyed.
“Photographs were taken [by the assessment team],” Totty
said. He said he anticipated some will be made available to the public later this week.
Consultations about transporting the aircraft home are expected to
continue through midweek, Totty said. The team is expected to draft a final report for
Navy Adm. Dennis Blair, Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Forces Pacific. That report, in turn,
will be forwarded to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for a final decision of the next
step in bringing the reconnaissance aircraft back into U.S. possession.
Totty said there is no timetable to finish the report or issue the
assessment team's findings.
In Washington, Rumsfeld said Sunday that it may be possible to fly
the damaged U.S. plane from its current location.
“The preliminary view is that it may be possible to repair it
sufficiently to fly it out, but that’s not clear yet. We’ll know later this
week,” Rumsfeld told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He added that President Bush would make the final decision, “but
I think that certainly it would be logical it would be flown out.”
Lockheed Martin's assessment team arrived on Hainan island May 1 to
inspect that plane for “airworthiness,” according to military officials. The
team included experts on aircraft structures and engines. The assessment team scoured the
plane to decide the best method of bringing it out of China.
The assessment team apparently overcame some rough spots between U.S.
and Chinese officials after Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said over the
weekend Chinese authorities refused electricity to the assessment team. Some of the
equipment and tests relied on electricity reportedly agreed upon by U.S. and Chinese
diplomatic negotiators.
But the setback had little to no affect on the team’s
inspections.
“The team had everything they needed,” Totty said.
“They had no difficulties. They were able to do everything they needed to do,”
said Quigley.
Two likely scenarios on retrieving the plane are being touted. The
first is to bring spare parts into Langshui airfield where the plane is being held, repair
and replace the damaged parts and fly it out of China.
Media outlets have reported the plane is capable of flying out, with
some repairs, but Totty said he couldn’t confirm that. He said no initial damage
reports and repair assessments were available.
Military officials still haven’t said where the plane would fly
to, if China gives the green light to fly it out. Totty said: “Nothing has been ruled
out.”
Okinawa’s Kadena Air Base is one possibility for a return
location for the Navy plane. Kadena is the air base from which the crew flew in the
ill-fated routine mission. Kadena is the closest U.S. military airfield to Hainan island.
But even that option gives military officials reasons to worry.
Not knowing the complete extent of the damage last week, PACOM
spokesman Lt. Col. Stephen Barger told Stripes, “There’s a whole lot of water
between China and where we would need to fly that plane.”
Flying the EP-3 from China reportedly is unacceptable to Chinese
officials. They reportedly would opt for the second solution: dismantle the plane and load
it on a cargo airplane or barge and ship it back to the United States.
All retrieval options still need a stamp of approval from both U.S.
and Chinese officials regardless of the option chosen by Lockheed Martin's assessment
team, Totty said.
“Diplomatic negotiations are ongoing in an appropriate and
current manner of getting the plane out of there.”
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