ON BOARD A PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT PLANE ¨C ¡°You¡¯re flying too close,¡± the Philippine pilot warned over the radio, as a Chinese military helicopter edged to within 3 meters of a Philippine government plane on patrol over the flash point Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.
The Feb. 18 incident, witnessed by The Japan Times from aboard a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) aircraft, was one of the countries¡¯ closest encounters ever in the skies above the disputed waterway ¡ª and one that could well have ended in disaster.
¡°You¡¯re conducting dangerous maneuvers that endanger the lives of our crew and passengers,¡± the pilot went on to say, calling on the Z-9 chopper ¡ª deployed from a nearby People¡¯s Liberation Army Navy warship ¡ª to ¡°keep a safe distance.¡±
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