Rumsfeld: We’ll get plane back

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 6, 2001

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday it may be possible to fly a damaged Whidbey Island-based surveillance plane from the Chinese military base where it has remained since an April 1 collision with a Chinese fighter.

"The preliminary view is that it may be possible to repair it sufficiently to fly it out, but that’s not clear yet. We’ll know later this week," Rumsfeld told NBC’s "Meet the Press."

The inspection team reported Friday that it could be flown, although U.S. defense officials said it was too early to know how extensive the repairs might be.

Rumsfeld added that President Bush would make the final decision, "but I think that certainly it would be logical it would be flown out."

Before a team of technicians began inspecting the $80 million plane last week, it was unknown whether the Navy aircraft had sustained structural damage that would make it unsafe to fly.

The collision damaged two of the surveillance plane’s engines and one of its four propellers. It also caused the plane’s nose cone to break off, and pieces of metal punctured parts of the fuselage.

"It’s an $80 million aircraft, and it’s ours. One would think you’d want it back, and we do. And I would suspect we’ll get it back," Rumsfeld said on CBS’ "Face the Nation."

The EP-3E collided with the Chinese jet as the U.S. plane was conducting surveillance off China’s southern coast. China held the 24-member U.S. crew, which was based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, for 11 days after they made an emergency landing on Hainan island in southern China.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.