Zazzie
|
posted on April 3, 2001 01:14:30 PM new
well....
How would the USA be re-acting if a foreign Spy Plane had to make an emergency landing on USA soil after flying over US land???
|
kraftdinner
|
posted on April 3, 2001 01:20:18 PM new
No kidding!
|
jamesoblivion
|
posted on April 3, 2001 01:48:21 PM new
What is this analagous too? The plane wasn't flying over Chinese land, or sea.
|
wowoatam
|
posted on April 3, 2001 01:56:13 PM new
Actually, it was in international airspace when the collision occurred so the question as posed is mute. Having suffered a mid-air and having declared an emergency, it's a standard practice to divert to the NEAREST airfield where ever that might be. By very long standing practice, ships and aircraft in distress are accorded rights of passage to "safe harbor" in the interest of protecting the lives of all aboard. It's sort of hard to get to someones airfield without flying into their airspace under those conditions. If the Chinese are so upset about the air incursion I wonder why they didn't shoot it down - there was more than one Chinese fighter up there you know. Guess maybe they wanted to tour the plane more than protect their airspace. At least when it was a 747 full of just people that so concerned them a few years back they didn't seem to hesitate to blow it away!
|
jamesoblivion
|
posted on April 3, 2001 01:58:14 PM new
But if the question means "would we take the plane apart and examine every millimeter under a microscope?" the answer is, of course we would.
|
wowoatam
|
posted on April 3, 2001 02:12:15 PM new
On the point JAMESOBLIVION (sorry for the spelling) about taking it apart, I can't disagree. We'd probably darn well try! (If for no other reason than to see what was stolen from us in the first place!) I'm not really up tight about that aspect. Yeah, I wish they didn't get aboard, but maybe the crew had time to screw up things. My beef is the crew and trying to make out like we've done some big injustice to them to keep an eye on things. For crying out loud, it's a RECON plane. We watch each other so we aren't surprised. Actually, I think the worlds a bit safer if we know what each other is up to along the way. We can all debate the merits of fly/don't fly, etc, but hopefully, we can agree that once the planes got together, trying to preserve the human lives was pretty important. And that said, why the Chinese think they are right to 'detain' the crew (or whatever you want to call it) is just flat out wrong.
|
Zazzie
|
posted on April 3, 2001 02:15:38 PM new
ya right---the plane was just on a site seeing trip.
Maybe I don't have all the information correct--or maybe all the correct information will never be forthcoming-----so the question is
How would the USA react if a Spy Plane from a country such as China or Russia was forced to land on USA soil??
|
rancher24
|
posted on April 3, 2001 02:19:46 PM new
From what I've heard on the news lately, the Chinese weren't too happy about losing (a defector) a member of their army (?) intelligence & were suspicious of two Chinese American scholars who were "touring" China (and were detained - one of them still there I believe)....Given that info, MY suspicious nature is gnawing at me that the "collision" wasn't extactly an "accident"....But then again, I'm a child of the 70's and my mind tends to do weird things now & agin'! 
~ Rancher
|
jamesoblivion
|
posted on April 3, 2001 02:22:20 PM new
The same way. We'd be blustering and bloviating and blaming Clinton, but I doubt very much we'd deny the Chinese airmen quick access to Chinese diplomats.
|
gravid
|
posted on April 3, 2001 02:34:01 PM new
Why don't they arm these things with missles?
They have very long range missles that would keep anyone from getting close to them. They warn aircraft away from ships in international waters - why not give a warning and then if they come closer than about 100 miles - shoot?
I also can't understand why they don't have enough explosives on board to completely destroy the whole airframe. Once they land it should have gone up within minutes.
|
jamesoblivion
|
posted on April 3, 2001 02:40:02 PM new
Maybe because it takes more then a few seconds for 24 people to get out of a plane in a Chinese airport and far enough away not to blow themselves up?
Also, even if it were conceivable to equip spy planes with missiles dontcha think they would have been fired upon by the Chinese fighter plane?
|
Zazzie
|
posted on April 3, 2001 02:49:35 PM new
well hopefully they have a button on board that will scramble up the technology--to be un-useable and the un-readable.
|
RM
|
posted on April 3, 2001 03:22:59 PM new
Seems odd to me that the plane landed at all. It's almost as though we're giving this plane to the Chinese. Maybe the crew was able to destroy or throw out a lot of stuff or maybe there wasn't really that much sensitive material or equipment onboard.
OR maybe we want the Chinese to have what was onboard?
I don't know. The whole thing seems strange to me. I would have figured the crew would have blown up the plane or ditched it in the ocean, rather than landing it. I wonder if we'll ever really know what happened.
|
Zazzie
|
posted on April 3, 2001 03:27:38 PM new
Captain Kirk and Spock would have set the self-destruct sequence if the Romulans were coming 
|
spazmodeus
|
posted on April 3, 2001 03:54:44 PM new
Captain Kirk and Spock would have set the self-destruct sequence if the Romulans were coming
Zazzie, exactly what I said in krs's thread about this. GMTA.
|
krs
|
posted on April 3, 2001 05:01:22 PM new
That plane wasn't over China, *according to our press releases*, but it might as well have been. Those intelligence configured aircraft are equipped to 'look' very far from their actual location. With satellites as they now are there's no need to fly over anyplace to gather all of the intelligence anyone could want. The planes hear--the satellites see.
Between them they could listen to your most intimate telephone calls and sometimes your conversations in your living rooms, and tell whether you are an inny or an outty as you sunbath in Kansas.
|
spazmodeus
|
posted on April 3, 2001 05:11:09 PM new
|
Borillar
|
posted on April 3, 2001 05:18:21 PM new
Here: Maybe this will help to settle a few questions:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/04/03/spyplane.law/index.html
|
Shadowcat
|
posted on April 3, 2001 06:41:58 PM new
I don't give a damn about the plane.
I do give a damn about the 24 military members in custody and their worried families back in the US.
I hope this gets settled soon and the 24 come home.
|
Zazzie
|
posted on April 3, 2001 09:29:09 PM new
---nothing will happen to them. The world stage is too big---the consequenses of anything happening to them--to large.
|
lotsafuzz
|
posted on April 3, 2001 10:19:13 PM new
I'm with S-kitty on this. Screw the damn plane. Let the PTB on both side piss and moan for the next 20 years AFTER our people are home.
Zazzie: I hope to God you are right. I have a very bad feeling you are not. I've been seeing reports online that the new rumor is that the PTB (whoever they are at the moment) are considering a trial for the 24 Americans.
I am just sick about this whole thing and I really don't understand why anyone even cares about a flipping plane at this point (yes, I understand the importance of the plane and the info on it, but to me that comes WAY after assuring our people are home).
|
jamesoblivion
|
posted on April 3, 2001 10:23:56 PM new
There are more consequences that the U.S. can inflict on China then China can on the U.S. (mostly economic), so no harm will come to them (although they might make them sweat so it might not be over for a little while). This whole matter is all about fist rattling and who can gain a point by out-toughing the other.
|
Zazzie
|
posted on April 3, 2001 10:26:00 PM new
JamieO---I think it is spear rattling and fist shaking....unless their bones are a bit loose and rattle
|
jamesoblivion
|
posted on April 3, 2001 10:26:30 PM new
Oooga boooga!
|
Zazzie
|
posted on April 3, 2001 10:28:08 PM new
It's also a matter of saving face-----on both sides
|
codasaurus
|
posted on April 4, 2001 08:43:59 AM new
Hello Wowoatam,
Are you referring to the Korean Air 747 shot down after it strayed into USSR airspace over the Kamchatka Peninsula?
|
