-Caveat Lector-
AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE CHINA RESCUE
MISSION April 12, 2001
By Captain Guy Greider, Continental Airlines
Since the mid-air collision on April 1, 2001
between a U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance
aircraft and a Chinese jet fighter, I had
watched the news with mild interest. This
was mostly due to the proximity of Guam
to China. I never dreamed that I would play
a role in this intensely watched international
drama. Somewhere in the negotiations
between the United States and the Chinese
Governments, it was decided that a civilian
Aircraft should be sent to retrieve the 24
crewmembers being detained on Hainan
Island, China. A call was made to
Continental Airlines headquarters in
Houston, Texas. Continental was chosen
because of its Guam base and its ability
to launch this kind of operation at a
moment s notice. From there, the operation
took shape through the tireless efforts of
many people working behind the scenes in
a coordinated effort between the airline, the
military, and the State Department.
On Saturday, April 7, 2001, I received a
call at home from Captain Ralph Freeman,
Continental Micronesia Director of Flight
Operations.
Ralph told me that the military wanted to
charter one of our jets to conduct a
rescue mission and asked if I would be
one of the crewmembers. I said yes
without hesitation. Later we were told
that we would need to get passport pictures
taken in case the Chinese Government
required visas. We got the required photos
and were under the impression that we would
leave immediately.
However, the negotiations slowed over the
demand from the Chinese that the U.S.
issue an apology that the U.S. was
unwilling to give.
Meanwhile, the Continental crew remained
on call 24 hours a day. Our Uniforms were
laid out and our bags were packed and
waiting by the door. On Wednesday evening
April 11, 2001, at about 630 PM Ralph called
again to say that the two parties were very
close to an agreement to release the U.S.
crew and to come to the airport. Upon arrival,
we were given a briefing sheet listing the
information that we would need to conduct
the flight. We would carry a Repatriation
Team consisting of Navy, Marine Corps,
and Air Force specialists, 14 people in all.
Doctors, Psychologists, and communications
people with lots of gear showed up on the ramp
near the airplane, ready to board. They were
all dressed in casual civilian clothes. The 155
-seat jet was fitted with 2 full stretcher kits
bolted in over rows of seats complete with
Oxygen tanks and I.V. bottles. They did not
know the condition of the 24 detained
crewmembers and they were not going to
take any chances. They were prepared.
When our crew was fully assembled, it
consisted of 11 people. 2 pilots to fly the jet
and an extra to provide relief because of the
extensive flight time involved. They were
Captain Tom Pinardo, Captain Pierre
Frenay and I. We also carried 5 very
experienced Flight Attendants. They were
Debbie Percell, Susanne Hendricks, Jean
Tang, Cynthia Iverson, and Beverly Haines.
Our 2 onboard mechanics were Peter Lum
and Julius Aguilo. Our load planner was Mike
Torres.
At about 930 PM we received a call asking
that we arrive in China no earlier than
600 AM, just about sunrise. It was obvious
that the entire exchange would be
photographed and they wanted daylight
conditions. We estimated that a 215 AM
departure from Guam would put us on the
ground in Haikou precisely at 600 AM local
China time. (2 hours earlier than Guam)
Some of us just stayed on the plane, others
accepted the company s invitation to come
to the Continental President s Club, a local
VIP lounge at the airport to try to get some
rest. It was difficult to get any rest with
our much-anticipated mission so near.
> By 100 AM the pilots were back in the
briefing room going over the weather,
flight plan, fuel requirements and
everything else that goes into a flight.
Again, we loaded up the airplane and
finally departed Guam International at
precisely 215 AM.
The stretcher kits and medical gear
were not the only special additions to
the airplane. The company had loaded
a special file into the navigation database
of the flight management computer (FMC).
This allowed us to gain access to navigation
data needed to operate in this part of China,
which is not in our normal route structure.
The Repatriation Team carried sophisticated
equipment to communicate with the military
and government officials that would monitor
our progress throughout the flight. The route
of flight took us straight west from Guam
toward the Philippines along the G467
airway. About half way across we
turned north directly toward Hong Kong.
This routing was designed to avoid flying
through Taiwanese airspace, something
that the Chinese could consider offensive.
Approaching the Chinese coastline, we
contacted Hong Kong radar control. After
establishing radar contact with us, the
controller gave us a short cut to expedite
his traffic flow. This was bad because it
cut off considerable distance and would
result in arriving too early. We compensated
by slowing our airspeed until the computer
again estimated a 600 AM arrival.
The instant we turned across the short
cut, the interphone rang from the back
of the plane. They wanted to know why
we had deviated from the flight plan.
We told them it was due to Hong Kong
traffic and that we had adjusted our
airspeed. We were still on schedule.
Now we were approaching our destination,
Haikou airport on Hainan Island. Captain
Pierre Frenay was at the controls. The
weather was 2000-ft overcast with 5 miles
visibility and light winds out of the east.
Pierre made an ILS approach to and
landed on runway 9. Haikou airport is
much the same as many other airports in
the world that serve jet transport aircraft.
It has an 11,000-ft runway with standard
lighting and navigational facilities. We
touched down at 607 AM. The first early
morning light was beginning to illuminate the
sky.
The local air traffic controller instructed us to
follow a vehicle that was beside us on an
adjacent taxiway. He led us to a remote part
of the airport, away from the main terminal
buildings. Once we had parked and shut
down the engines, we saw many uniformed
Chinese military personnel and vehicles.
They did not appear to have weapons.
Portable stairs were brought up to the
airplane and we opened the main cabin door.
The Repatriation Team that we carried had
been briefed to close down all of their
communications equipment prior to landing
and put it away. They were also briefed to
remain in their seats in a non-threatening
posture in case the Chinese military came
aboard. The first and only person to come
aboard was an Air China employee. He
spoke English and was to act as the translator
between our group and the Chinese military.
He instructed us to have everyone fill out both
arrival and departure documents. He collected
all of our passports and left the aircraft.
Before he left, he said that only one person
at a time would be allowed to deplane. Peter
Lum, one of our mechanics went down to supervise
the re-fueling and servicing of the airplane.
When that was complete, I went down to do
the walk-around inspection. I did this rather
slowly because I wanted to have a chance to
look around. While I was out on the ramp,
a skirmish developed between people who
were trying to climb a wall to photograph our
aircraft and the Chinese police. Somehow,
CNN managed to carry our arrival and
departure live.
Once the airplane was serviced and ready to
go, we looked anxiously around for any sign
of the buses that carried our 24 detainees.
Before that could happen however, we had a
problem to deal with. A U.S. military General
who was on the scene to assist in the transfer
came storming up the stairs and demanded
to speak with the Captain. Tom Pinardo
responded. The General said that the entire
mission was now in jeopardy. A document
called the general declaration, which is
standard on all international flights had listed
the destination as Haikou, China R.O.C. The
initials ROC stand for Republic of China
which is .. Taiwan! The Chinese were very
upset over this. Tom quickly crossed out ROC
and replaced it with P.R.O.C. the Peoples
Republic of China. This seemed to satisfy them.
With the airplane ready to go and the
paperwork complete, 2 buses pulled up
and the 24 U.S. service men and women
saluted as they bolted up the stairs and
settled into the back of the plane. When
the last one was aboard, our passports
were returned to us. The stairs were
withdrawn, the cabin door closed, and we
started the engines and departed. It was
my turn at the controls. Once airborne
heading straight south we broke through
the clouds into the bright sunshine. Pierre
made a PA announcement that we were
over international waters and leaving
Chinese airspace. A great
cheer rose from the back of the airplane.
A short while later we received a telephone
patch over the HF radio from Mr. Joseph
Prueher, U.S Ambassador to China. He
wanted to speak with Lt. Shane Osborne
the 26 year old EP-3 Aircraft Commander.
Lt. Osborne came to the cockpit and put on
a headset. The Ambassador told him that on
behalf of the President of the United States
and the entire country he wanted to say
welcome home . He went on to say how
proud he was of everything the crew had
done from their airmanship in saving the lives
of the crew and aircraft, to their conduct on
the ground once they had been detained.
They had truly done an excellent job.
After his conversation with the Ambassador,
Lt. Osborne stayed in the cockpit for quite
a while and told us his story pilot to pilot of
what had happened during and immediately
after the mid-air collision with the F-8
Chinese fighter. The fighter came up under
their left wing. This pilot made 2 very close
passes previously that day. He apparently
misjudged the intercept and his vertical
stabilizer struck the outboard left propeller
on the EP-3. The U.S. plane was in straight
and level flight on autopilot at the time. The
fighter broke into two pieces and plunged
into the sea. The U.S. plane rolled to the left
almost inverted, the pilot lost control and
they began to lose altitude. The Chinese
fighter had raked back across the fuselage
and knocked off the nose cone causing the
aircraft to buffet wildly. When the nose
cone departed the aircraft it collided with
and damaged the number 4 propeller on the
right wing. The collision punctured the
pressure vessel and the EP-3 depressurized.
The collision also knocked off the pitot tubes
eliminating airspeed and altitude indications
in the cockpit. It also knocked off the forward
bracket for the HF radio antenna. The antenna
then flew back and wrapped around the tail.
We were almost upside down and totally out
of control Osborne told us. The dive
continued and some crew members donned
parachutes. At about 8,000 feet, Osborne
regained straight and level flight. They
considered ditching the aircraft in the South
China Sea but dismissed that option
because it was certain to result in loss of
life. They headed for the nearest land,
Hainan Island. The U.S. crew now faced
the most difficult landing of their lives. They
made numerous mayday, mayday, mayday
radio calls on internationally recognized
emergency frequencies. The Chinese did
not respond. Somehow, they managed to
get the airplane on the ground. Their next
immediate task was to destroy the sensitive
electronic surveillance equipment aboard
the EP-3.
Meanwhile the Chinese military had
approached the aircraft in vehicles and
were yelling at them through loudspeakers
to deplane. The next 11 days would be a
very uncertain time for them. When we
met them, they told us that they had not
been abused or mistreated. Their food
was adequate and plentiful. Sort of like
eating in a Chinese restaurant every day
one of them said. On the forth day, they
got some coffee. On the fifth day, some
cokes were provided. The crew did not
know what kind of transport would be
provided for their return home. They were
pleased and surprised to see a chartered
airliner from the United States. The rest of
the flight from Haikou to Anderson AFB on
Guam was uneventful.
During the 5 hour flight the crew was
treated to the movie Men of Honor and
enjoyed a first class meal. We did not
know it at the time but our landing at
Anderson AFB was carried live on national
television. We taxied to the parking ramp
at Anderson where many people had
turned out to welcome all of us home.
Individuals and families with kids, both
military and civilian waved American flags
and cheered, showing support for the
returning U.S. spy plane crew. Once the
24 U.S. crewmembers and the military
Repatriation Team had deplaned at
Anderson, they immediately boarded
waiting buses and were whisked away.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
=================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
