Attention Chinese Military Pilots!

[propnuts]

[Wagon1]

I still can't believe that gave the pilot of the P-3 a medal for landing his aircraft in China. What a dork. They should have court marshalled him.

[exrafbod]

If you think those wide turns a bit improbable....try marshalling a court. They are really slow moving.......oh I see you meant court martial .....then would that make the judge a court martial-arts expert? Just funnin' life's too short to be nasty.....we know what you meant....but.... d'ya think the farthest thing from the drivers' mind was "Gee that sure looks like China we're about to land on". Must be all that 'other surveilling' they do.

[Galvin]

Court Martial? What should he have done, ditch and risk losing the whole crew? Dive it into the control tower and martyr himself and the whole crew rather than let the airplane fall into Chinese hands?

I think he did a great job under the circumstances, circumstances which left him damn few options.

I don't think the Chinese learned a whole lot new from the equipment that wasn't destroyed on board other than freqs, which would have been changed immediately afterwards anyway. I understand much of the equipment, including the encryption devices and code books, were largely destroyed prior to touchdown.

One of the senior NFOs on that airplane was the son of a former instrument student of mine, a now retired fire captain for L.A city living in Palos Verdes. I am also very glad his kid got home ok, largely due to the flying skill of that aircraft's captain.

Besides, he got a kill.

[Wagon1]

Yes. You risk your crew. You put the needle on the nose, try to get it home. You do not take a national asset like an E-P3 and deliver it to the Chinese. I spent a few years flying F-14s. I would have never, ever, used a field in China, Syria, a Soviet block country(back then), as a divert.

[Wayne]

He was going down no matter what. There was only 2 choices land or water...getting home was not one of them.

[Galvin]

OK, let's say that I am flying that EP-3E Aires and have just been sideswiped by a Chinese pilot with more balls than brains and good judgement. I have just lost both port engines, one or both of which will not feather. There is also other unknown damage to the airframe that makes controlling the airplane a bit iffy and both my right leg and that of the first officer are starting to shake from holding right rudder against the good engines.

This airplane is based on the P-3 Orion but has been packed full of electronics and techs and it is therefore so heavy that its max altitude rarely exceeds 27,000', which is far below the capability of its Air Force EC-135 counterpart, and is a handful even when everything is going well.

But I digress. Meanwhile, back at the IFE...

In order to maintain any semblance of directional control, power on the starboard outboard engine (No. 4)must be reduced and that, combined with the windmilling prop(s) on no(s). 1 (and maybe even 2) means that staying in the air for any length of time is not an option even though my right leg feels a little better.

In addition to being a little busy at the moment, I am also not real sure that other large chunks of the airplane are not getting ready to part company with the airframe, which would make any decision I have to make pretty much moot. I am also well aware on some level that I have lots of top secret equipment on board as well as 23 other SOBs (Souls On Board) who are depending on me to make the right decision, hopefully one that allows them to keep on living.

Throw into the mix that we are indeed on a military mission, but against a country with which we are not at war and with whom we actually have agreements and relationships other than military, including a huge trade in commercial goods. It is also a country which is so large and unwieldy that it has tenuous control over some of the more powerful of its generals in its southern provinces and the idea of landing there is a big question mark, aside from the question of the delivery of top secret national assets to a potential future enemy.

What do I do now, Sparky?

Assuming I even have time to think about them in my spare time between bouts of losing control of the aircraft and recovering it, my options are:

1.) Try to get offshore as far as possible and ditch with the certainty of losing the aircraft and more than a good chance of losing the entire crew of 24, given the present control problems and the fact that this particular airplane modification handles like a gymnasium full of water even on a good day. The water isn't that deep here either and the chances are good that the Chinese will retrieve big chunks of the wreck and its equipment anyway. The crew aren't keen on doing this but, hey, I'm the captain so we'll do what I say.

2.) Decide to pick out the largest and most expensive looking thing in the region and dive into it at full power while humming the theme from "Patton" in the way that Japanese pilots supposedly dove to into ships off Okinawa while singing the "Kimagayo". I reject this option because:

A.) We aren't at war with China at this time and things are bad enough anyway and

B.) I don't remember the theme from "Patton" or the "Kimagayo" either for that matter. The crew will think this option sucks too but, hey I'm the captain and they'll just have to do what I decide.

3.) Try to set the whole mess down on Hainan Island and keep the locals away long enough to allow the crew to destroy as much equipment and information as possible before the Chinese make their demands for entry too convincing. Since we aren't at war with them and since their insurance company is going to have to pay for it because it was obviously their fault, I go for this option.

While the above is more or less tongue in cheek, I have a hard time believing that this crew was sent in such close proximity to China to gather this sensitive information without some sort of plan as to what course of action to take in case:

A.) they were attacked and shot down, as so many Ferret type missions have been since WWII.

B.) they were forced down by fighters, or

C.) they were run into by intercepting fighters and forced to set down early, which has also happened several times in the past.

The fact that the aircraft commander was given a DFC in lieu of being sentenced to making little ones out of big ones at Portsmouth is indicative that he may just have followed the official contingency plan for case C.) above.

[JimCasey]

The theme from Patton goes dum-dum de dum de dum de dmbelty dum, de dumbledy dum de dumbledy dum de deeeee. (repeat)

Given that option, the theme from "A-team" might have been more appropriate.

The guy that was wrong was the Navy task force comander who didn't have helos full of seals enroute as soon as there was a "Mayday".

[Wagon1]

. They were flying a military mission, not a commercial hop from JFK to Logan. It was time to put down the box lunch and make a decision. I think he made a very bad one. 'Course, seeing as the Clinton adminisration saw fit to deliver to the Chinese classified information anyway, maybe it would make sense to just give them the airplane and not risk the crew.


I edited this. Lots of stupid comments. Sorry......