gambit
PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2009
- Messages
- 28,569
- Reaction score
- 148
- Country
- Location
The issue raised by the US was not legality -- but SAFETY.A defense ministry official, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times that a US plane approached a Chinese military jet that was carrying a routine mission near the Huangyan Island and the Chinese pilot responded with legal and professional measures.
If you approach someone, it is YOUR responsibility to maintain safe separation, not his duty to move away from you. It does not matter even if he is in your territorial airspace. Safe flying gives priority to the flyer who is already on a steady course/heading. If you want him to follow you, give the appropriate instructions/signals, then lead. As he follows you, then it is his duty to maintain safe separation while it is your duty to maintain that steady course/heading.
The Chinese government representative said that it was the American P-3C who approached the Chinese KJ-2000.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/09/politics/us-china-aircraft-unsafe-encounter/
If the American P-3 had to alter its course, that mean it was the Chinese KJ that approached it.A second official said that the American P-3 had to alter course to ensure that there wasn't an aerial collision.
The question now is which source to believe.