A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of a US Air Force B-52 bomber over the South China Sea this week in a nighttime maneuver that nearly caused a collision, the US military said on Thursday.
The pilot of the J-11 jet that drew close to the B-52 in international airspace on Tuesday night “flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner” and with “uncontrolled excessive speed”, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
The US military also released a grainy, black-and-white video that it said showed the encounter. The mid-air clip, apparently filmed from the bomber, appears to show the jet drawing perilously close. The New York Times has not independently verified the video.
China had no immediate response to the Pentagon’s statement. Chinese officials have previously depicted the air intercepts as reasonable responses to foreign military patrols that threatened the country’s security.
New York Times News Service
