Spy Crew Unable To Destroy Material


Updated: Thu, Apr 26 1:39 PM EDT
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON AP) - The U.S. crew on board the Navy EP-3E surveillance plane that made an emergency landing in China was not able to destroy all sensitive material onboard the aircraft, government and military officials said Thursday.

China has refused to release the damaged aircraft, which landed on Hainan Island on April 1, after colliding with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet over the South China Sea. The 24 American crew members on board the reconnaissance plane were released 11 days later. U.S. officials debriefed them for two days to glean information about the incident.

The National Security Agency, the government office responsible for collecting electronic intelligence, is conducting a review of the potential damage done by the loss of the top-secret aircraft, said two government officials familiar with the study.

"The damage assessment is still ongoing, but it's clear some stuff was lost," said one of the officials. All spoke on condition of anonymity.

"They weren't able to get everything," the official added, speaking of the crew.

The crew worked quickly to destroy their computerized gear and its contents in the minutes between the collision and the time they were taken off the plane by Chinese soldiers, said one Defense Department official.

"They did get a lot of stuff. ... They started through their checklist, which had five or six steps. They had everything electronically zeroed out," said the official.

Another military official, who also spoke privately, said the crew was able to change "key codes" for computerized information and smash hardware with hammers.

Even so, there wasn't enough time to destroy everything, the official said. "It was physically impossible to smash it all up," he said.

A better assessment of the damage will only be able to be made after the plane is returned to U.S. hands, the official said.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking after the crew was released, said they had gone through their checklist and did as much as possible.

The United States has demanded that the plane be returned, but talks with the Chinese over the incident have not resolved the situation.
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I can't help but wonder exactly what the Chinese are finding out.

Moral to this story is that clearly a system needs to be put in to place to destroy ALL sensative material with great ease if the need arises. I don't blame the crew, I blame those who designed a flying N.S.A. office without considering this posibility carefully enough.

We should have destroyed it where it sits.

I agree.

A single tomohawk missle would have done nicely.

What I don't understand is why the Capt. didn't have a few gallons of jet fuel in cans and as they taxied to a stop, pour it all out inside the plane and the last man off throws a flare inside.  Kaboom, no more plane.

They should have the fuel tanks able to be wired with a timed incindiary device.  Good luck swiping computer chips from a burning plane.

Damn man,  There were like 24 people on that plane.  You figure 2 to fly it down and the other 22 with hammers.  ½ hour flight to the airbase and how long did they sit uninterrupted.  I sure can smash alot in that amount of time.

Guess they didn't have 22 of their $500 dollar hammers.

They best not mess with my dog. or eat em either.

 Ahh come on! This ain't the movies, this is reality.  You had on board that plane a bunch of nose pickers (young guns) who were too busy changing their shorts after thinking that their plane was going down, down down, to China town. This crew has no combat experience. I am surprise that they had enough sense left to even think clearly to do anything at all.

 In any case, the Chinese probably are not getting  anything that wasn't already sold to them previously. So how convinent is this? Now anything new that the Chinese comes up with can be blamed on information obtained from this spy plane instead of the previous administration. Or they can blame Wen Ho Lee or the other FBI, CIA spies.  Slick will never go away.

Very excellent post Levi!!  This will absolve Klinton 100% of all resposibility.

sgtar15

I don't think that plane is coming back.  That's why Bush has decided to sell weapons to Taiwan and said that we would defend them.  Sort of an "up yours" to the officials in China who won't give the plane back.

They get paid to [b]BITE THE BULLET!!![/b] and they choose not to. They should hang the pilot for landing in china.

1. RipMeyer you are full of crap ! That pilot did what he was trained to do.
2. Klinton aready sold all our secrets to China ! Ha !
3. China will never give it back.
4.SH*T Happens

Yep, a couple hundred gallons of JP4 and a flare would have done it.  BURN BABY BURN.  I don't blame the crew.  How were they to know the chinks would act like they did?  I'd have never thunk it. Commie bastards.  That will be our next major war for sure.  Maybe we should go ahead and wax them before they get even more powerful.   I say we cancel a couple million VISAs and send the round-heads home.  Anybody with me?

We shall see. I betcha he leaves the service in a hurry. (mandatory retirement or discharge).

BTW
I really dont think they trained him to land in china when the the fireworks start. The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few (Mr Spock). He shopuld have ditched it.

Surely SOMEBODY thought of this type of thing happening and planned for it. Surely the pilot must have talked to somebody at some base somewhere for orders during the minutes before he landed.

I'm frankly ignorant about this, but is the pilot (who's taking criticism here) even in command of the plane? I guess ships' captains usually are in the Navy, but they don't have to steer the ship personally. Army tank drivers are not tank commanders. Ida thunk with all that secret stuff in there they'd have somebody big on board who was specially trained to make big-picture decisions while the pilot concentrated on the immediate technical difficulties. I'd hate to have that much on my mind at one time!

NO SIR! That would be an act of war! The Command pilot screwed up big time. He failed in
his mission by not taking the plane out to sea
and trying to get home.

I respectfully disagree.
I am active duty and work with this stuff all the time. BELIEVE me when I say they got PLENTY, and certainly alot more than they already had.

I think we should have destroyed the plane. But, if we did it when the Chinese still had our crew they were dead.  I think we got the crew back, after they had stripped the plane of anything they wanted.

I think we will get the plane back.  In several crates and containers, after they have dissassembled all of it, and copied the technology or what they could of it.  After all, they would not want to keep U.S. hardware.

oops-double post.

the plane was not in a must crash situation ... the proof is in the fact that he flew it 80 or so miles to an airfield he had no practice on and did a flawless flaps up one eng out landing... the damn thing would have flown home, nicely...i know aviation as i have worked aircraft for uncle sam for 10 years and an airline for 12...pat

So the Chi Coms will only let us take it apart and send it home in boxes. I say we should use some thermite and explosives and leave it a nasty piece of slag on their destroyed runway.

You're surprised that we didn't destroy the equipment that was very handsomely paid for by the Chinese blackmailers? Now, let me ask you, if you paid money for something, wouldn't you expect to get it?

Now, do not mistake me for not being patriotic. I love what this country was created to be (a Constitutional Republic with all men created equal under their Creator), but I am appalled by what it has become. Let's not fool ourselves here--some of you believe the leaders we have in place are honorable when in fact they are treasonous bastards. And if you followed a recent thread, you can count on one hand the ones who are honorable and uphold the Constitution. It won't change until we start putting bullets in the heads of every so-called leader who betrays the Constitution. Voting these criminals out and voting new criminals in just repeats the cycle in which we find ourselves.

Now I know right off the bat that what I just said will be attacked in some way or another. The simple fact is that the powers behind these treasonous actions want you and I dead, and the plans they're implementing will accomplish just that. Until the masses see the harsh reality of the battle in which we find ourselves, then do something about it, the tyranny will progress unabated.

"We shall have world government whether or not you like it, by conquest or consent." Statement by Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member James Warburg to The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 17th, l950

"We shall have world government whether or not you like it, by conquest or consent." Statement by Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member James Warburg to The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 17th, l950"

Certainly this is not news.  Even the Bible predicts that will come to pass.

The plane should been destroyed by Stealth bomber inbound as the plane carrying the crew was outbound from the island.  Carrier battle groups should remain on station in this area from this point on.

I personally think the pilot should have ditched the plane in the ocean after letting the crew bail. Maybe that wasn't an option, I wasn't there, so I wouldn't know. But that doesn't mean that it was a bad thing to land the plane.

I like the idea someone had about putting JP5 (yes, it's JP5 now, not 4) in the plane and the last person flares it up. Maybe that wasn't an option either. But I know here on the ship, we have axes, sledge hammers, burn bags, magnets and heavy vaults (to deep six) classified information so that our enemies don't get it.

I'm sure the crew of that plane (some of which are ET's just like myself) had enough sense to follow the destruction cards which does go from most sensitive to least. Even though we say that's our most technically advanced spy plane, most of that equipment (just like all the other equipment in the Navy) is 10-20+yrs old.

I'm not going to loose any sleep in my rack tonight thinking that some chicoms have classified info on some 20 yr old marconi microwave antennas.

My $0.02 [sleep]

Ooh... and send a S.E.A.L. team over there and blow it up at night.[rocket]