US, China planes in ‘unsafe’ encounter

AUS Navy P-3 plane and a Chinese military aircraft came close to each other over the South China Sea in an incident the Navy believes was inadvertent, a US official said on Thursday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft came within 305 metres of each other on Wednesday in the vicinity of the Scarborough Shoal, between the Philippines and the Chinese mainland.

The official added that such incidents involving Chinese and American aircraft are infrequent, with only two having taken place in 2016.

The US aircraft was “on a routine mission operating in accordance with international law,” US Pacific Command told journalists in a statement.

“On February 8, an interaction characterised by US Pacific Command as ‘unsafe’ occurred in international air space above the South China Sea, between a Chinese KJ200 aircraft and a US Navy P-3C aircraft,” it said.

“The Department of Defence and US Pacific Command are always concerned about unsafe interactions with Chinese military forces,” Pacific Command added.