Chinese jets buzz U.S. plane near Hong Kong

Two Chinese fighter jets buzzed a U.S. Navy P-3 surveillance plane on Friday. Flying about 150 miles southeast of Hong Kong in international airspace, the J-10 jets came within 2 football fields away from our aircraft. That's close in aviation terms--very close.

A U.S. official said the jets were "unsafe" in the action they took, but we will not do anything about it other than scold them. One of the Chinese jets flew out in front of the Navy plane and then did a series of slow turns--their way of "flipping the bird" to us. In effect, they cut the plane off like a car might do on a highway at fast speed.

According to one U.S. official, the action occurred before one of our Navy destroyers, the USS Dewey, sailed within six nautical miles of the contested Mischief Island, in the South China Sea early Thursday.

The previous week, two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a U.S. radiation-sniffing surveillance plane over the East China Sea with an "unprofessional" maneuver, according the U.S. Air Force.

It's good to know the Chinese flyers are amateurs, just in case we have to shoot them down in the future.


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