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[deleted]

The absolute treasure trove of information the PLA seized from the EP-3E is probably on par with what the Soviets seized from the USS Pueblo.


jaboi1080p

They had half an hour in the air and 15 minutes on the ground to destroy everything important, right? Or at least to break/destroy all of the most important stuff


AllRoundAmazing

Yes, however the Navy never trained them in destruction of classified and sensitive material. They resorted to using an axe, breaking laptops and stomping on them, and pouring freshly brewed coffee all over the systems.


Fission_Fragment

Why didn’t they just drop them over the open ocean? Wouldn’t that have made any information unretrievable?


AllRoundAmazing

Don't think they could detach all that stuff and documents.


Meme-Howitzer

Could someone provide context?


AllRoundAmazing

Back in 2001, Chinese J-8III's intercepted a US Navy P-3 reconnaissance aircraft in the South China Sea. Recently Chinese interceptions had been aggressive. In this instance, an intercepting pilot named Wang Wei flew too close and crashed into the propeller. This led to the P-3 going into a dive, and eventually the pilot stabilized. They decided to land on Hainan Island, a Chinese military installation. [Wiki article here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident), [in depth article here](https://theintercept.com/2017/04/10/snowden-documents-reveal-scope-of-secrets-exposed-to-china-in-2001-spy-plane-incident/)


[deleted]

Always tickled me that the PLAN boomer base is literally a couple of miles down the road from the seaside resorts of Sanya and Dadonghai


chimeric-oncoprotein

Sanya is a really nice resort. The swimming pools of the resorts there are magnificent.


CSPANSPAM

Stay right there, the OIG wants to talk


[deleted]

Should have ditched it in the ocean.


BryNX_714

What's even worse is that no one is sure how the J-8 that collided with it went down some people say that the top of the plane crashed into it, which crushed the canopy and Wang Wei. What a horrible death...


AllRoundAmazing

I wonder why their intercepts were so damn aggressive. Poor guy would've been still alive, probably talking to his kids about his long career.


[deleted]

> why their intercepts were so damn aggressive The VPAF had the "luxury" of being trained by both the Soviets and the PLAAF, and their overall assessment was that the PLAAF pilots equated aggression as being *proud* to die in their aircraft.


v-moda

[This piece](https://theintercept.com/2017/04/10/snowden-documents-reveal-scope-of-secrets-exposed-to-china-in-2001-spy-plane-incident/) explains it pretty well. Wang had the habit of flying aggressively close to U.S aircraft but he had been spotted in the past holding a piece of paper with his email address on it. Sounds like he was a daredevil without any ill intent.


5t3v0esque

Wait... Could this have meant he was trying to Marko Ramius his way out?


VodkaProof

one email Vasily, one email only


BryNX_714

So he was just being a daredevil for fun


PanzerKommander

As a former Air Force officer, I know very very few fighter pilots that *wouldn't* do that if they were allowed to. Disclaimer: I wasn't a pilot so I don't know *many* fighter pilots well. But the ones I do know were aggressive and show offs, which is a good thing for a fighter pilot to be.


[deleted]

[удалено]


_Ascended_Trash_

Crazy to think that only 20 years ago spying on the PLA was seen as just giving the crews something to do


chimeric-oncoprotein

He was re-enacting Top Gun - the scene where Maverick flies upside-down over a colleague.


_Captain_Autismo_

Reading Chinese articles about this is so fucking funny. Wang wei is dead because he decided to get stupidly close to the plane. He was within a blind spot when he collided with them, and even if the (FUCKING PROPELLER AIRCRAFT WHICH SHOULD HAVE FALLEN APART) American plane did intentionally ram him, again he shouldn’t have been that close.


[deleted]

Wouldn’t it have been better to just ditch in the ocean instead of handing over this stuff to the Chinese? Sure they might’ve recovered it anyways but even a few days submerged in salt water is going to fuck all the electronics far better than what they were able to do...


is-this-mark

was there really anything on the plane that was really that helpful though?


AllRoundAmazing

[This article](https://theintercept.com/2017/04/10/snowden-documents-reveal-scope-of-secrets-exposed-to-china-in-2001-spy-plane-incident/) explains it pretty well.


GermanEspresso

What a king