Chinese Fighter Jet Chose To Make ‘Dangerous Pass’ At US Navy Aircraft

For years, relations between U.S. and China have come under strain due to alleged hacking from the Chinese. The allegations have been made towards government and private industry. Both have been seen as a means to stealing both private and public sector trade secrets that have been pilfered to the benefit of the Chinese.

Recently, as reported by The Inquisitr in January, more serious allegations have been lodged regarding cyber attacks. A power grid in San Jose, California, was attacked, but garnered little media attention due to the Boston marathon bombings a few hours prior to the incident.

Now, as reported by The Telegraph, a Chinese fighter jet flew “perilously” close to a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon and acted “aggressively.”

“The jet flew within 30 feet of a Navy surveillance and reconnaissance plane in a ‘very very close, very dangerous,’ encounter known as an intercept. The Pentagon said it filed a diplomatic complaint to the People’s Liberation Army on yesterday (FRI) morning, but has yet to receive a response.”

According to the report, Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby stated that the Chinese fighter had flown too close to the U.S. aircraft three times by flying underneath the plane, at the nose, and in parallel with the wing tips.

At one point, Rear Admiral Kirby described how the Chinese fighter did a barrel roll to presumably show it’s weapons, according to The Telegraph.

According to the Pentagon, this is a rising trend in unsafe intercepts of U.S. airplanes.

“This incident is the most recent in a rising trend of nonstandard, unprofessional and unsafe intercepts of US aircraft that we have observed since the end of 2013,” the official said, calling it “one of the most unsafe intercepts since the 2001 EP-3 collision.”

The collision referenced was in regards to a U.S. Navy spy plane that collided with a Chinese fighter jet that was tailing it over what was considered international waters, about 50 miles southeast of China’s Hainan Island, according to the New York Times article in April of 2001.

These altercations are not isolated to the Chinese alone. Russia has been the subject of similar aeronautic maneuvers, as well. From June until as recently as August 7, there has been off and on intercepts of Russian planes near “American Air Defense Zones,” as well as Canada. The incident in June was the closest contact. Russia Today and Washington Free Beacon reported on the incident.

“After tracking the bombers as they flew eastward, two of the four Bears turned around and headed west toward the Russian Far East,” Gertz wrote. “The remaining two nuclear-capable bombers then flew southeast and around 9:30 pm entered the US northern air defense zone off the coast of Northern California.”

The main difference between Russian and Chinese fighter jet situations is that the Russians planes seem to have made incursions into U.S. airspace, whereas the Chinese fighter jets are meeting the U.S. airplanes near the South China Sea, near China.

[Image Via Wikimedia Commons]