Word: crash
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...enough that the Chinese were holding the crew and autopsying the plane; then Jiang stepped forward to charge that the U.S. was fully responsible for the crash and owed China an apology. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer flatly ruled out any such thing, and not just because being a superpower means never having to say you're sorry. The U.S. was more than willing to apologize for accidentally bombing the Chinese embassy in Belgrade two years ago. But in the case of this collision, the near instant consensus among U.S. military pilots was that if anyone was at fault...
...kind of good morning that Laura Bush is used to. At 5:40 a.m. last Wednesday, the phone rang in the presidential bedroom. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was on the line. Chinese diplomats had finally accepted a U.S. letter of regret about the South China Sea air crash that had locked the two countries in 11 days of tense confrontation. The standoff was safely over, the American air crew heading home. The President, still in bed, rolled over to his wife and dryly delivered the news. "Looks like the matter is going to be resolved," he said, according...
...laughable. Such an explanation is like blaming a snail for running into an ant. It was the Chinese who decided to fly dangerously close to the U.S. plane in international waters. Moreover, earlier this week word came that the U.S. plane was on autopilot at the time of the crash, making the Chinese explanation that the U.S. plane swerved into the Chinese fighter jet highly implausible...
...countries have a meeting scheduled for April 18 that looks likely to be anything but friendly. China has announced its delegation plans to demand that the U.S. accept full responsibility for the plane crash and cease further surveillance flights in international airspace off the Chinese coast. Fat chance. The U.S. plans not only to resume the flights, but to challenge the Chinese conduct in response to such flights. Don't be surprised if it's some time before the Chinese hand back the U.S. plane that remains at Hainan. Still, both sides will be eager to avoid a recurrence...
...After all, they lost a frontline fighter and pilot in a tussle with an unarmed propeller plane, and then appeared to be taken by surprise when that propeller plane landed at one of their airbases. The U.S. statement accepted by the Chinese leadership concludes that the circumstances of the crash remain unclear, in contrast to the Chinese insistence that the U.S. plane rammed their fighter. And with their Pentagon counterparts, they're now obliged to figure out ways of preventing a recurrence while continuing to seek ways of obstructing the airborne intelligence-gathering operations that Washington will want to continue...