PLA helicopter almost collided with foreign aircraft over East China Sea
North Eastern Asia
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By Lio Zhen
The PLA has reported a series of helicopter encounters with a foreign military over the East China Sea, with Chinese and foreign aircraft coming as close as 10 metres (33 feet).
The “provocations by a foreign force” happened 11 times over 10 consecutive days, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Wednesday, without saying when or where the encounters took place or which “foreign force” was involved.
It said the Chinese helicopter was flown by Wang Ling, a pilot from the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force aviation corps of the Eastern Theatre Command, which oversees the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
“When I received the mission, I was ordered to take off combat-ready because some foreign force was approaching our coastline,” Wang was quoted as saying.
PLA planes and warships have had frequent close encounters with foreign aircraft and vessels in recent years, some of which have been reportedly “dangerously close”.
Nevertheless, it is unusual for the ground force’s aviation corps to conduct interceptions over the water. Such an event could only happen very near the Chinese coast due to the limited range of the force’s land-based helicopters.
In the report, Wang appeared to be flying a Z-19 light reconnaissance/attack helicopter, which has a combat radius of only 200-250km (124-155 miles).
He located the foreign helicopter in low-visibility weather and concluded that it was a ship-based aircraft and that its base ship must have been nearby.
He followed the aircraft to its base ship and began circling the vessel to investigate when the foreign helicopter rolled into a turn towards him in a “provocative move”, trying to push him back, Wang said.
“When the distance reached 10 metres, he saw that I was hovering still without moving in the slightest,” he said of the pilot. “I guess he was nervous, so he suddenly executed a steep bank in the opposite direction and quickly got away.”
The foreign helicopter came back the next day, Wang added, and they had a pursuit in the clouds.
Wang said he intercepted the other helicopter above the clouds at an altitude of 300 metres and forced its pilot to make an “immediate U-turn”.
“For 10 days in a row with 11 combat take-offs, Wang successfully dealt with the provocations from the foreign force,” the report said.
CCTV reported in January that Yang Yaodong, piloting a Z-19 helicopter from the 71st Group Army of the Eastern Theatre Command, had intercepted a “foreign helicopter”.
The report did not name the other helicopter’s country of origin, but footage showed an aircraft that appeared to be a US Navy shipborne MH-60R Seahawk anti-submarine and surface warfare helicopter.
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