WASHINGTON – Exactly three months after the U.S. Navy EP-3E surveillance plane made an emergency landing on China’s Hainan island, the aircraft is being returned in pieces to U.S. custody, officials said Monday.
Parts of the dismantled aircraft were flown aboard a cargo plane to Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa on Sunday. The cargo plane is to make a final flight with the EP-3E’s stripped-down fuselage on Wednesday, said Maj. Sean Gibson, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command.
The EP-3E was part of an electronic surveillance group based at Kadena. Its return in pieces will mark the end of an episode that severely strained the U.S.-China relationship.
Vice President Dick Cheney said “the jury’s out” on whether the United States and China can now forge stronger bonds.
The crated spy plane will be flown from Kadena to Lockheed Martin’s aircraft plant in Marietta, Ga., this week, officials said. The Navy has said it hopes to have the EP-3E returned to service.
The EP-3E landed on Hainan on April 1 after colliding in flight with a Chinese fighter jet while on a surveillance mission over the South China Sea. China blamed the crash on the U.S. plane and detained its 24-member crew on Hainan for 11 days. The Chinese pilot was killed.
