By Shannon Tiezzi
The top US Air Force commander in the Pacific said the U.S., China, and Japan largely avoid dangerous midair incidents.
Back in August, the U.S. Department of Defense accused a Chinese jet of conducting a “dangerous intercept” of a U.S. surveillance plane in international airspace near China’s Hainan Island. This week, the top U.S. Air Force commander in the Pacific wanted to make it clear that the vast majority of midair interactions between Chinese, U.S., and Japanese planes are safe.
Speaking from the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii, General Herbert J. Carlisle told reporters that China, Japan, and the U.S. “have been very good about staying separate and not getting into a case where we are too close or we risk miscalculation,” according to the Associated Press. According to Carlisle, encounters like the one in August are the exception rather than the rule.
Carlisle noted that tensions in the East China Sea increased after China’s declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in late 2013. Chinese and Japanese planes are coming into far more frequent contact within the area where their ADIZs overlap, Carlisle said. Despite this, he noted that China and Japan have generally been able to avoid dangerous midair encounters, as has the United States.
Read the full story at The Diplomat