Beijing agrees to plan to ship Whidbey plane

The Washington Post

BEIJING — China and the United States announced Thursday they have agreed on a final plan to dismantle and ship home the damaged U.S. surveillance plane that landed April 1 on Hainan Island after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet, settling a dispute that has been an obstacle to easing tensions between the two nations.

Four American technicians have arrived in China and begun planning the removal operation, which is expected to last more than a week. It involves pulling off the wings and tail of the Navy’s Whidbey Island-based EP-3E Aries surveillance plane and loading the parts aboard a large cargo aircraft, U.S. officials said.

The United States had hoped to repair the plane and fly it home. But China rejected that plan, saying it would further anger a nation already upset by the death of the Chinese pilot in the collision and the U.S. spy flights in international airspace off the Chinese coast. The Americans yielded, and negotiators reached agreement on other technical issues Wednesday in Beijing.

In announcing the deal, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yixi expressed hopes that U.S.-China relations, which were badly strained by the collision and the 11-day standoff over China’s detention of the U.S. plane’s crew, could now improve.

"China and the U.S. have basically solved the matter of the plane," Sun said. "The crew members have returned, and now the disassembling and transportation of the plane also is solved. So we hope bilateral relations can come back to the normal track."

Sun declined to provide further details, and it was unclear whether the United States would make any payment to China, as Chinese negotiators had demanded. It was also unclear whether the United States would be able to reassemble the plane, which is about the size of a Boeing 737, and return it to duty.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said the two sides agreed on a "plan of action" but referred questions to the U.S. Defense Department.