Discussions with China on retrieval of EP-3E continue, U.S. officials say
By Mark Oliva, Okinawa
bureau
U.S. officials are denying a Chinese announcement that the seven-week
standoff over the American spy plane is over.
China said Thursday it is willing to let the United States chop the
$80 million EP-3E aircraft into pieces and fly them out.
Within hours, Department of Defense and U.S. State Department
officials denied any such deal.
“There has been no agreement reached as to how the plane will
depart Hainan island,” Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman, said. “I
can’t explain for you the statement” from Beijing.
U.S. officials say they are holding out for a deal that would keep
the plane from the scrap heap.
“Our preference clearly is to get the aircraft back in the
United States in the most efficient, cheapest and best possible way,” Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon.
Rumsfeld and others said that means repairing the plane on the
military airfield, where it has stood since April 1, and then flying it off the island.
Although China repeated on Thursday that it would never allow the plane to fly away,
Quigley said Washington has not given up that option.
The standoff has shifted from whether the plane will be released
— apparently it will — to how much political dignity Washington is willing to
lose in the process.
The United States will also consider taking off the plane’s
wings and tail section and putting those pieces, along with the fuselage, aboard one or
two large civilian cargo aircraft, Rumsfeld said. In that scenario, the pieces could be
reassembled and the plane returned to spy duty.
China objected to that approach, Rumsfeld said, because they feared
the runway at Lingshui air base on Hainan could not handle the stress of the cargo planes.
The approaches discussed so far with the Chinese do not include “chopping up the
aircraft,” the defense secretary told reporters.
“Discussions are ongoing,” one State Department official
told Stars and Stripes in a phone interview. He echoed Rumsfeld’s suggestion to fly
the plane home, but said, “We are prepared to disassemble and fly out the
aircraft."
The State Department official wouldn’t elaborate on the possible
plan.
An official from the British-based Heavy Lift Cargo Airlines said his
company might be involved in the spy plane retrieval.
“There is something afoot,” said Peter Clark of HeavyLift
Cargo Airline’s Kansas City, Mo., office. “But it’s not something
that’s going to happen tomorrow.”
He referred all further questions to Vince Seeger of the
HeavyLift’s London office. Seeger was unavailable for comment.
HeavyLift Cargo Airlines specializes in moving large and heavy pieces
of equipment and uses one of the world’s largest cargo airplanes, the Russian-made
Antonov AN124-100.
The EP-3E could easily fit into the Antonov with minimum dismantling.
Officials from Lockheed-Martin, the company that makes the Navy
reconnaisance plane, said they are prepared to assist in the recovery, but no official
request has been received.
“We’re prepared to do anything DOD wants us to do,”
said Hugh Burns, director of public relations for Lockheed Martin.
Five civilian technicians from Lockheed surveyed the plane on Hainan
island for several days in early May to assess damages and form a recovery plan. The team
said the plane is airworthy and capable of being fixed and flown out.
Quigley said Wednesday if the United States is allowed to fly the
plane, repairs could be made within two or three weeks with a repair crew of 15 to 25
people. He added the plane is likely to return operational duties after additional repairs
are made after its return.
Lockheed officials said the amount of time it would take to dismantle
and prepare the plane for transport depends on how many technicians the Chinese allow on
the island.
“It could be done in one day with a hundred people or two weeks
with six,” the official said.
China seems intent on exacting a high political price by not letting
the plane fly away under its own power. China contends that the plane, which was
eavesdropping on Chinese military communications from international air space when the
collision happened, violated its sovereignty.
China demanded a U.S. apology for the collision and has insisted that
U.S. surveillance flights off its coast be stopped. Surveillance missions have continued.
Washington refused to make a full apology. Instead, President Bush
approved a letter saying America was “very sorry” for the loss of a Chinese
pilot and for the U.S. plane’s unauthorized entry into Chinese airspace to make an
emergency landing.
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China's
proposal for return of plane to U.S. not without precedent
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