[Nervous Tick]

>> pitched into the sea......probably

That’s the essence of your argument. Just what the press told you to believe.

Too bad for my country that it wasn’t the truth.

[CharlesWayneCT]

The press was told what declassification and gamesmanship determined they should be told.

The truth of what happened is classified. If you know, and are basing your discussion on what you know, you are probably violating classification. If you are speculating based on what you think, you do not know, because only those who have the appropriate clearance and need to know actually know, and they aren’t talking.

But using simple reasoning, if the plane contained anything that would compromise our security, we could easily have blown it up upon departure from the plane, or rigged it with explosives to blow up on entry, or even hit it with a cruise missle — if it was as serious as you suggest, the fallout from launching a cruise missle at our own plane in China would have been preferable.

Or it could be the administration royally screwed up.

If I knew, I wouldn’t be posting.

[BIGLOOK]

I flew that same airframe as well as others, VQ-1 out of DaNang. I think I know the drill although the NVNAF didn’t want to capture our planes, they wanted to kill them.

That’s the essence of your argument. Just what the press told you to believe.

The press wasn't in the loop, whatever was written meaningless. The A/C can be sanitized in minutes and sensitive equipment disabled if not destroyed. Pitch and ditch drill......but they didn't have to ditch (which is not recommended for the EP-3, especially with a busted nose). The pilot did the right thing as did the crew. VQ-1 and VQ-2 lost too many planes and crews over the years, gathered a lot of experience in difficult, deadly encounters with our targets and this one was an unapologetic success. Bonus points for splashing the J-7.

Here's an important question none of you have asked; "Would the ChiComs have released the crew if they had concrete evidence of espionage?"

Survive, evade, resist and escape was the order that day. The aviators and crew managed the situation well even if they weren't able to evade. Cool it on the suicide BS.