Editing Lockheed EP-3 (section)

==Hainan Island incident==
{{main|Hainan Island incident}}

On 1 April 2001, an aerial collision between a [[United States Navy]] EP-3E ARIES II, a [[ELINT|signals reconnaissance version]] and a [[People's Liberation Army Navy]] [[Shenyang J-8II]] fighter resulted in an [[international incident]] between the United States and [[People's Republic of China|China]].  Operating about 70 miles (110 km) away from the PRC island province of Hainan Island, the EP-3 was intercepted by two J-8II fighters.  One of the J-8IIs collided with it.  The J-8II crashed into the sea and the pilot, Lt. Cdr. Wang, was seen to eject after the collision.  His body was never recovered and he was declared dead.  The EP-3 came close to becoming uncontrollable, at one point sustaining a nearly inverted roll, but was able to make a successful, unauthorized  [[emergency landing]] at Lingshui airfield on [[Hainan]] island, where the two J-8II fighters involved in the incident had been based. At least 15 distress signals from the Orion had gone unanswered.  The crew and the plane were subsequently detained by Chinese authorities because of the death of the Chinese pilot.

After several days of interrogations, the crew was repatriated separately to the United States while the aircraft remained in China, reportedly taken apart for research on American intelligence technology.  Although the crew attempted to destroy as much classified material, hardware, and software on the aircraft as possible prior to the emergency landing, there is little doubt that the EP-3 was exploited by Chinese intelligence services.  An American team was later permitted to enter Hainan in order to dismantle the aircraft, which was subsequently airlifted on board two of [[Polet Flight]]'s [[Antonov An-124]]s back to the United States for reassembly and repair.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1380725.stm|title=Russians to fly out spy plane|website=bbc.co.uk|date=10 June 2001|access-date=9 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181018044845/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1380725.stm|archive-date=18 October 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

This incident is fictionally portrayed in the TV Series JAG: Season 7, Episode 9 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0613245/?ref_=ttep_ep9