Hainan Island incident

Hainan Island incident
The damaged EP-3 on the ground on Hainan Island.
Date (2001-04-01) (2001-04-11)April 1–11, 2001 Location Hainan Island, People's Republic of China, South China Sea Result American crew detained, later released; one Chinese J-8 pilot MIA and presumed dead
Belligerents
United States	China
Commanders and leaders
George W. Bush Lt. Shane Osborn	Jiang Zemin Lt. Cdr. Wang Wei †
Strength
1 EP-3E signals intelligence aircraft	2 Shenyang J-8II aircraft
Casualties and losses
1 EP-3E damaged and captured 24 aircrew captured and detained	1 J-8 destroyed 1 pilot missing, presumed dead

The Hainan Island incident was a ten-day international incident between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that resulted from a mid-air collision between a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a Chinese Air Force J-8II interceptor on April 1, 2001.

The EP-3 was flying over the South China sea at a point roughly midway between Hainan Island and the Paracel Islands when it was intercepted by two J-8 fighters. A collision between the EP-3 and one of the J-8s caused damage to the EP-3 and the crash of the J-8 and the loss of its pilot. The EP-3 was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan without approved permission from the PRC, and its 24 crew members were detained and interrogated by Chinese authorities until a statement was delivered by the United States government regarding the incident. The ambiguous phrasing of the statement allowed both countries to save face and defused a potentially volatile situation.^[1][2]