'We did it right'

Navy Lt. Shane Osborn

Navy pilot describes collision, aftermath

In this story: 'No apologies necessary' Interrogations, lack of sleep RELATED STORIES, SITES

HICKAM AFB, Hawaii (CNN) -- Navy Lt. Shane Osborn said he had his EP-3 reconnaissance airplane on a "straight, steady" course just before the unexpected occurred: a Chinese fighter jet came too close and the two planes collided.

"The first thing I thought was, 'This guy just killed us,'" Osborn said Saturday in his first public account of the harrowing events of April 1.

Osborn and his 23 crew members were detained on China's Hainan Island for 11 days after he landed the crippled plane at a Chinese military base there.

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They were released on Wednesday, and underwent two days of debriefing with American officials before Saturday's departure for their plane's home base at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington.

Details of the collision and its aftermath had been leaked as the debriefing went on, but Osborn's descriptions carried more immediacy.

"He would come up, close," Osborn said of the Chinese pilot. "The third time his closure rate was too far. He attempted to turn and pitch up, but his vertical stabilizer impacted my number one propeller, basically pretty much tearing his aircraft apart."

The harassing nature of the Chinese intercept -- even though the Navy jet was flying over international waters -- was not unusual, Osborn said. But the degree of the harassment was new on April 1.

"On other missions it was nowhere near this harassing," he said. "Previous times, they would get pretty close to us, but not near that close."

Osborn shook off any suggestion that the Chinese pilot may have been trying to bump the EP-3 and force it down.

"They weren't intending for this to happen," he said. "No pilot is going to put himself in jeopardy like that."

'We did it right'

After the impact, Osborn said, he saw the parachute of the Chinese pilot and his smoking fighter jet plunging toward the South China Sea.

But with his own plane in a near-vertical, nose-down dive, the pilot and his crew had little time to think about the fate of the Chinese pilot.

With the plane plunging rapidly, Osborn and his crew quickly assessed their situation -- what systems were still functioning, and what chance they had of landing safely.

Stabilizing their altitude at 10,000 feet, the Navy pilot initiated the emergency destruct plan for the sensitive data and equipment on board -- and considered ditching the plane into the sea.

"Once I got wings level I was still very concerned and still didn't at that point think I was going to be able to get the plane down," he said.

Osborn said he made "at least 15 mayday calls" as the plane limped toward the nearest landing strip -- China's Lingshui military base on Hainan Island.

China complained that Osborn landed the plane on Chinese territory without permission -- and accused the American plane of veering into the Chinese jet. Osborn said that just wasn't true.

"Contrary to some releases, this aircraft was straight, steady, holding altitude and heading away from Hainan Island," he said. "The sharp left turn they're talking about came when we started the dive."

"We did it right," Osborn said. "No apologies necessary on our part."

Interrogations, lack of sleep

The Navy pilot said he'd ordered the emergency destruction of sensitive data and equipment on board the surveillance plane "well offshore" before the landing, but he said he could not comment on how much of that process the crew was able to complete.

Once on the ground, Chinese authorities wanted the crew off the plane immediately, Osborn said.

"A lot of people (were) in shock at that point," he said. "By the time I got the engine shut down they were already at the door wanting to talk, and I wanted to be the first one to do that."

Chinese officials "were polite and respectful to us" during their 11-day detention, Osborn said, but an irregular interrogation schedule prevented the crew from getting good sleep.

"There were different wakeup calls at all times," he said. "I'd try to steal some sleep when I could."

"We were seen by doctors. They obviously fed us well. The only unpleasant part was the interrogations and the lack of sleep," he said.

Osborn wouldn't comment on the nature of the Chinese interrogations, except to say that "they were interested in the accident first and foremost."

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USCINCPAC Homepage
The Pentagon
U.S. Navy
Navy Fact File: EP-3E ORION (ARIES II) Aircraft
U.S. Department of Defense
Government of China (in Chinese)
U.S. Department of State
Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the U.S.A.
Government Information Office, Republic of China

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