Hainan Island incident
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On April 1, 2001, a United States Navy EP-3E signals reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted by People's Liberation Army Navy J-8IIM fighter jets over international waters about 70 miles (110 km) off the Chinese island of Hainan. The People's Republic of China later claimed that this plane was spying on Chinese military facilities. During the flight there was a collision between the wing of the EP-3E and one of the J-8s, which caused the death of the J-8's pilot Wang Wei and forced the EP-3E to make an emergency landing on Hainan.
At about 0915 local time, two J-8s approached the EP-3 six times within 10 meters, and twice came within 3 meters before Wang's fighter and the plane collided on the 44th intercept. The Americans claim that one of the Chinese jets bumped the wing of the larger, slower, and less maneuverable EP-3E, while the Chinese claim that it was the American plane that swerved into the flight path of the J-8. None of the information in the black boxes of either plane was made public, so the matter is still disputed.
Crew members claimed they had on previous flights seen Wang fly so close that they were able to read an email address he held up on a piece of paper. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld later showed a video of a J-8 pilot flying dangerously close and nearly hitting another EP-3E two weeks earlier, saying the pilot may have been Wang. Chinese authorities questioned the video's authenticity.
Wang ejected after the collision, but was never found and presumed dead. Meanwhile, the EP-3E entered Chinese airspace without authorization and made an emergency landing on Hainan, where it was impounded by the Chinese. The crew of 24 was detained until April 11, after the U.S. issued the "letter of the two sorries".
The plane was not released until July 3. In the event a plane is captured, Navy protocol calls for destruction of sensitive equipment such as the listening devices on board the EP-3E. Chinese military did board the plane, but it is not known if they retrieved any sensitive information. Some have speculated that the incident improved Chinese spying technology by at least 5 years.[citation needed]
The incident was often compared to the U-2 spy plane crisis of 1960.
