MOSCOW (AP)--The Russian airline Polyot has won the tender for the right to transport the U.S. Navy spy plane that landed in China out of the country and back to the U.S., a company official said Saturday.
Leonid Shirobokov, a spokesman for Polyot, told the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies that his company had won the tender, which had been announced last week by the U.S. Defense Department.
"Now, the airline is preparing to perform this task," Shirobokov said.
He said a Russian An-124-100, called Ruslan, will take the EP-3 spy plane from the military airfield on the Chinese island of Hainan, but he didn't give a date for the operation.
The U.S. aircraft collided with a Chinese fighter during a reconnaissance flight along the Chinese border April 1. It made an emergency landing on Hainan Island off southern China and the crew was detained by the Chinese for 11 days.
The U.S. and China announced last Thursday a plan to dissemble the plane for shipment to the U.S. aboard a chartered Russian aircraft.
Washington originally wanted to repair the plane and fly it home, but China refused that option.
Pentagon officials said chartering a Russian Antonov, described as the largest cargo aircraft in the world, was necessary because China had refused to allow a U.S. military plane to come for the crippled aircraft.
A Pentagon spokesman said the operation to dismantle the aircraft, pack it aboard the Antonov and return it to the U.S. would most likely take several weeks.
http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/dowjones/story/0,2619,601553000-GEN,00.html

-- Anonymous, June 09, 2001

Answers

Is there something I'm missing here? What the hell are our tax dollars doing going to contract a Russian company to return our property from Chinese hands?

Blow the damn thing up...

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001