Navy plane crew colleagues prepare homecoming celebration

Pentagon officials believe these images were taken by a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane crew member and e-mailed home a few days before the incident:   Based upon this jet's ID number, Pentagon officials believe this photo shows Chinese pilot Wang Wei, who was killed when his jet collided with a U.S. Navy surveillance flight     ON THE NEWS Martin Savidge: Debriefing and celebrations in store for home-bound crew

In this story: U.S.-China meeting set for Wednesday Intense negotiations RELATED STORIES, SITES

WHIDBEY ISLAND NAVAL AIR STATION, Washington -- The 24 crew members of the Navy surveillance plane detained in China will return to their home base Saturday to a hero's welcome.

"Right now we envision a two-part ceremony," said Capt. Larry Salter, Whidbey Naval Air Station's chief executive officer. "The first part will be the homecoming, the coming off of the airplane, the reuniting of the families, and we expect that to take some number of minutes. Then we'll kind of pause and reshuffle a little bit and then get into the formal ceremony."

Members of the public will be allowed on the base beginning at 1 p.m. PDT (4 p.m. EDT).

The plane carrying the crew from Hawaii is due to arrive before the 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT) scheduled start of ceremonies. When they arrive, the crew members will be reunited with their families and then move into a hangar for the ceremony.

It had not been determined if the crew members will speak during the ceremony.

VIDEO See the video released by the U.S. Department of Defense that sources say shows pilot Wang Wei harassing a U.S. plane Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Mike Boettcher reports on the crew's arrival in Hawaii Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) U.S. President Bush speaks about what he told the U.S. crew and on relations with China Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) The crew get off the plane in Hawaii and is greeted by a ceremony of pomp and circumstance while loved ones look on Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)    GALLERIES Images of the crew's return Images of some of the U.S. detainees in China    CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition    RESOURCES This computer animation shows how the Pentagon says the collision between a U.S. plane and a Chinese fighter happened Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Timeline: Overnight calls brought word of release deal    IN-DEPTH U.S.-China Collision: A diplomatic solution  • About freighter returning EP-3  • Look: Inside the EP-3  • Facts about the EP-3  • Map: Locating the incident  • Big picture: High stakes  • Classroom discussion guide  • Historical US-China timeline  • Whidbey arrival images  • Crew speaks out  • Crew's return images    BIG PICTURE High stakes in standoff    ALSO Returning U.S. crew member pops question to girlfriend Jiang begins visit to Cuba with greeting from Castro CNN crew released by Chinese More related stories

The events will follow two days of crew debriefings in Hawaii.

The 24-member crew of a Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft was detained by Chinese authorities from April 1 to April 12 after colliding with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet over the South China Sea and making an emergency landing in China.

"Based on their debriefings (the crew of the damaged EP-3) will be told what they can and cannot say," said Capt. Bill Marriott, a squadron pilot at Whidbey. "When they choose to come forward, if they choose to come forward, they'll know what their limits are. "They'll understand what they can say and I'm sure go forward with that."

In the U.S. capital on Friday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeldsaid that the Chinese pilot -- Wang Wei, who is missing and presumed dead -- was deliberately harassing the EP-3 crew.

"The F-8 pilot clearly put at risk the lives of 24 Americans," Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon news conference. "It was clear the pilot's intent was to harass the crew."

Rumsfeld said he didn't believe the Chinese pilot deliberately ran into the U.S. EP-3.

"You've got to know that no pilot intentionally takes his horizontal stabilizer and sticks it in the propeller of an EP-3," Rumsfeld said. "He did not mean to do that, I am certain of that."

During the news conference, Rumsfeld showed video taken from a U.S. aircraft that showed -- based on its number -- the same Chinese aircraft that struck the EP-3 flying very close to the U.S. plane.

Sources told CNN that the pilot shown in the video -- which was shot January 24 -- was Wang.

Internal U.S. government documents lists the Chinese pilot as having been involved in two previous close encounters with U.S. planes -- once on January 24, and another on January 30.

The videotape released by the Pentagon Friday shows Wang cutting in front of the slow-moving U.S. prop plane, and then pulling up under the left wing.

The plane's number, 81192, also matches the number of the plane usually flown by Wang.

In Cuba, where China President Jiang Zemin was visiting President Fidel Castro, Jiang's spokesman told reporters the U.S. still has an obligation to fulfill. "The government of the United States should give an explanation to the people of China," said Zhu Bangzao.

"It should stop sending its spy planes to the Chinese shores, and it should take effective and efficient steps to avoid accidents and incidents of this type in the future," he said.

U.S.-China meeting set for Wednesday

U.S. and Chinese officials were to meet in Beijing next Wednesday April 18 to discuss the causes of the incident, the fate of the Navy EP-3 aircraft and how such accidents could be avoided in the future.

Based on initial interviews with the aircrew, Rumsfeld said that the U.S. plane was flying straight and level on autopilot -- not turning, as the Chinese have asserted -- when the Chinese fighter approached rapidly from a 45-degree angle.

The Chinese jet passed under the left wing of the U.S. plane, and then pulled up its nose to slow down, causing its tail to hit the EP-3's left outboard propeller, Rumsfeld said.

He said the collision caused the jet to break up and debris hit the EP-3's nose cone, which in turn knocked out the inboard engine on the right wing.

Rumsfeld said the plane's commander, Navy Lt. Shane Osborn, considered ordering his crew to bail out, and then, after righting the plane, thought of ditching at sea. Finally, he decided he had a good chance of landing at the Chinese base 40 to 50 miles away.

U.S. officials said that Osborn's attempts to contact Chinese officials about his situation were unsuccessful, and he put the plane down without official permission.

Rumsfeld said the plane -- still impounded by China -- was worth more than $80 million and indicated the U.S. was interested in its return.

"As the president has indicated from the outset -- (U.S.) Secretary (of State Colin) Powell -- that subject will be front and center at the April 18 meetings, just as it has been every single day since the crew landed in China," Rumsfeld said.

Intense negotiations

The U.S. crew was released on Thursday, after intense negotiations resulted in a letter to China from U.S. Ambassador to China Joseph Prueher saying the United States was "very sorry" for the loss of the pilot and that the Navy plane had landed in China "without verbal clearance."

On Thursday and Friday, the crew has been undergoing debriefing sessions in Hawaii. They were expected to return to the plane's base at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington for a homecoming celebration scheduled for Saturday.

The debriefs were thought to be broken into three parts, according to former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman of the National War College: damage assessment, operational intelligence and military-to-military relations.

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USCINCPAC Homepage
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Navy Fact File: EP-3E ORION (ARIES II) Aircraft
U.S. Department of Defense
Government of China (in Chinese)
U.S. Department of State
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Government Information Office, Republic of China

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