[eno_]

A mile and a half is a long way compared with, say 20 feet, which is how far away the Chinese fighter was off the wing of our electronic surveillance plane when it got sucked into turbulence, got out of control, had a midair collision and crashed. The surveillance plane, despite having its nose taken off, a bent propeller, etc. made it to a landing. Gotta believe running into a plane is worse than running into a plane's wake.

[discostu]

But the Chinese fighter was next to our plane thus ahead of the turbulence. Clearly under normal circumstances turbulence doesn't tear planes apart, unless there's something wrong with the plane to start with, then it could be the final stressor.