Dismantled US spy plane back home
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07/06/2001
ATLANTA: The American spy plane that was at the centre of a diplomatic standoff between China and the United States was flown to a Georgia air base yesterday, where it is expected to be reassembled so that it can be returned to service. Security was tight as a huge Russian Antonov cargo plane carrying the fuselage of the US$80 million EP-3, which was held on China's Hainan Island since April, touched down at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia. The plane's components will be unloaded and placed in hangar storage at Lockheed Martin Corp's facility, adjacent to the Dobbins base. Lockheed, original manufacturer of the surveillance plane, is currently finalizing contract negotiations to restore the plane to flying status, the company said in a statement. The restoration effort would take several months. On a hangar near the main runway sits another EP-3"donor" plane, parts of which will be used to rebuild the damaged plane. The damaged EP-3, loaded with surveillance equipment, had been on China's Hainan Island since April 1, when it landed at the Lingshui air base without permission after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese plane crashed and its pilot Wang Wei was killed. The United States had originally intended to repair the plane and fly it out, but China said allowing the plane to fly off Hainan would be a national humiliation. Beijing agreed to let the plane be dismantled and flown out in May. The chartered Antanov AN-124 cargo plane, flown by a Russian crew, left China on Tuesday and first landed in Hawaii late on Tuesday with the 12-strong American recovery team that dismantled the EP-3, before continuing its journey to Georgia. Agencies via Xinhua
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