What’s Wrong with this Map? - Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer - page 5

Twenty-five years later China once again asserted its sovereignty, this time with
much higher stakes. On 1 April 2001 two Chinese Navy Finback jets intercepted a
USNavyaircraftflyingoffthecoastofChinainthedirectionofOkinawa.Accord-
ing to the United States, Mission PR32 was 'a routine reconnaissance mission'.
This particular plane, an Aries II with four propellers, had crossed this stretch of
ocean before and was on a direct route to base when the interception occurred. In
the cat-and-mouse world of aerial reconnaissance the incident was standard fare.
Nations routinely scramble jets whenever they detect a foreign military plane in-
side their airspace. The two pilots sent out that morning had buzzed US planes be-
fore, nor was this a new experience for the twenty-three crew members on board
the Aries. This sort of thing goes on all the time.
The two single-seater Finbacks closed in on the rear of the Aries with the in-
tention of getting as close as possible, playing chicken, then turning tail and rock-
ing it with jet wash. The pilot of the lead jet, Lieutenant-Commander Wang Wei,
had experience in intercepting American planes before. Sotoo the UScommander,
LieutenantShaneOsborn,wasaveteranofaerialmanoeuvresovertheSouthChina
Sea. Both men knew what they were doing. Both knew the rules of this particular
game.
Wang brought his Finback up alongside the slower Aries, cruising off the left
wing of the American plane at a distance of as little as ten feet. This is a dangerous
move at 180 knots: you have to be an excellent pilot to manoeuvre in that close to
another aircraft at that speed. After sitting off the left wing for a short while, Wang
peeled away from the prop plane, circled and came up again from behind. What
happened next depends on whom you believe. The pilot in the second Chinese jet
lateraccusedOsbornof'veeringatawideangle'towardsWang'saircraftandram-
ming it. Osborn insisted that he stuck to regular procedure, which was to keep the
Aries on a steady bearing for Okinawa and not alter his course. The problem was
that Wang came up too fast on his second pass. When he tried to cut his speed by
pulling up just as he reached the Aries's wing, he misjudged either his speed or
his distance. The jet pitched upwards and caught the blades of the propeller of the
outside engine on the Aries. The propeller sliced the Finback in half. Its nose spun
forward and collided with the front of the US plane, while the cockpit and fusel-
age rammed the underside of the Aries before rocketing sideways under the right
wing, narrowly missing the propellers. Some of the American crew believed they
saw Wang eject, but no trace of him was ever found.