STILL MISSING IN CHINA

RETURNED TO MILITARY CONTROL FROM CHINA
APRIL 11,  2001

April 2, 2001

The Navy released the names of the 24 members of the crew of the EP-3E Aries II electronic surveillance plane that landed in China after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet. They are members of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One, stationed at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, Wash.

Here are the names, ranks and home of record:

NAVY

Ensign Richard Bensing of Brandon, Fla.

Aviation Electrician's Mate 3rd Class Steven Blocher of Charlotte, N.C.

Cryptologic Technician Seaman Bradford Borland, whose home of record was not listed.

Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class David Cecka of Leavenworth, Wash.

Lt. (j.g.) John Comerford of Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.

Cryptologic Technician Operator 1st Class Shawn Coursen of Valdosta, Ga.

Cryptologic Technician Collection Seaman Jeremy Crandall of Poplar Grove, Ill.

Cryptologic Technician Interpretive 1st Class Josef Edmunds of Davis, Calif.

Cryptologic Technician Interpretive 2nd Class Brandon Funk of Showlow, Ariz.

Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class Scott Guidry of Satellite Beach, Fla.

Cryptologic Technician 2nd Class Jason Hanser of Billings, Mont.

Lt. Patrick Honeck of La Mesa, Calif.

Lt. (j.g.) Regina Kauffman of Warminster, Pa.

Aviation Machinist's Mate Senior Chief Nicholas Mellos of Ypsilanti, Mich.

Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class Ramon Mercado of Moreno Valley, Calif.

Lt. Shane Osborn of Norfolk, Neb.

Lt. (j.g.) Richard Payne, whose home of record was not listed.

Cryptologic Technician 2nd Class Kenneth Richter of Staten Island, N.Y.

Lt. Marcia Sonon of Lenharstville, Pa.

Lt. (j.g.) Jeffery Vignery of Goodland, Kan.

Aviation Machinist 2nd Class Wendy Westbrook of Rock Creek, Ohio

Cryptologic Technician 3rd Class Rodney Young of Katy, Texas

MARINE CORPS

Sgt. Richard Pray of Geneseo, Ill.

AIR FORCE

Senior Airman Curtis Towne of Haywood, Calif.

US airplane was probing new warship
MID-AIR COLLISION: An intelligence source says the US Navy plane was attempting to collect data on China's most advanced warship when it collided with a Chinese jet fighter

By Brian Hsu
STAFF REPORTER

A US Navy surveillance aircraft that was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan Island on Sunday was collecting information on a Russian-made Sovremenny-class destroyer, an intelligence source told the Taipei Times
yesterday.

The propeller-driven EP-3 plane had attempted to fly away after colliding with one of two Chinese jet fighters, the intelligence source said. The collision caused the fighter to crash into the sea......

Major Intelligence Coup for China
Charles R. Smith
Monday, April 2, 2001

U.S. forces are on heightened alert after a game of aerial chicken turned deadly over the South China Sea.

A U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries spy plane was forced to land inside China on Sunday after colliding with a People's Liberation Army Air Force jet fighter 62 miles southeast of Hainan Island.......

Sailor Says U.S. Spy Crew Was Moved
By Christopher Bodeen
Associated Press Writer
Monday, April 2, 2001; 3:12 p.m. EDT

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities have moved the 24 crew members of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane to a military guesthouse, a Chinese sailor said Monday, a day after an in-flight collision forced the aircraft to land on a Chinese
island.

The EP-3 plane was standing empty at the military airfield where it landed in the town of Lingshui on Hainan island, said the sailor, who refused to give his name and was contacted by telephone at an adjacent naval facility.......

China to use crew as 'hostages'?
Expert: Beijing maneuvering to force defecting PLA colonel's extradition
By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

At least one China expert believes Beijing may be using 24 U.S. crewmen -- from a Navy EP-3 "Orion" surveillance plane it now holds -- as "hostages" to force Washington to extradite a former People's Liberation Army senior colonel back to the mainland.

Yang Chih-heng, deputy director of the Strategic and International Studies under the private Taiwan Research Institute, a think tank, said the timing of an incident involving a Chinese F-8 fighter, which "bumped" the U.S. plane
during a spy mission Saturday night, was "unusual."......

Hainan incident: Foreign and domestic entanglements
http://atimes.com/editor/CD03Ba01.html

South China Sea near Hainan Island, Sunday morning, approximately 9:10 am local time.

Chinese version: An American spy plane is shadowed by two fighter jets. The American plane maneuvers abruptly and rams and downs one of the fighters. The US plane makes an unauthorized landing at Hainan Island's Lingzhui
military airfield. "The US side has total responsibility for this event," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that it had made a "serious" protest and that, "The US plane abruptly diverted toward the
Chinese planes, and its head and left wing collided with one of the Chinese planes, causing the Chinese plane to crash."

US version: An Okinawa-based US Navy EP-3 electronic surveillance plane (crew of 24) on a routine mission in international airspace is shadowed by two Chinese F-8 fighters, is bumped accidentally by one of the Chinese
fighters, sustains damage to its nose cone and left wing and makes an emergency landing at Lingzhui. "It's pretty obvious who bumped who," said Admiral Dennis Blair, head of the US Pacific Command in Hawaii. He told reporters that the Chinese fighters, similar to US F-16s, fly much faster and have more maneuverability than the EP-3, which is about the size of a Boeing 737 and basically flies in a straight path......

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