[JET NOISES]
- I can't get him off my tail!
MERCEDES STEPHENSON: High speed, high flying
fighter jet dogfights and narrowly
buzzing control towers.
It's the stuff of high-adrenaline action movies.
Though for modern militaries, more like
juvenile relics of the past.
But Global News has learned that China is putting Royal Canadian
Air Force crews in the danger zone with high risk,
high aggression tactics in international airspace.
The Chinese military is using what sources call
dangerous maneuvers to intercept Canadian intelligence aircraft,
currently on a UN mission to enforce
sanctions against North Korea.
Fast and agile Chinese fighter jets
are buzzing Canada's slower Aurora aircraft with razor thin
margins, frequently zooming past the planes a mere 20 to 100
feet away, creating enough turbulence alone
that Canadian planes could be thrown off-course
or risk a mid-air collision.
BILLIE FLYNN: It would be terrifying for them
to do any kind of evasive maneuver
because they might trick the Chinese fighter
pilot into doing something even more irresponsible and more
dangerous.
So the best they can do is fly along
and hope that the Chinese fighter
pilot doesn't make a mistake.
MERCEDES STEPHENSON: The Chinese pilots
are so close, multiple sources told Global News,
the Canadians can make eye contact with them
and see the Chinese pilots flipping them
the middle finger.
Senior military officials are concerned
it risks the safety and even the lives of Canadian crews.
And this isn't a case of a single pilot
hot-dogging-- sources say there have been approximately
60 intercepts since Christmas, and nearly half of those
have been dangerous.
The Canadian government has sent multiple official diplomatic
rebukes to China, calling the maneuver,
"unsafe and unprofessional"--
all to no avail.
CHARLES BURTON: The fact that the Chinese government is not
responding to Canadian concerns seeking
to rein this kind of adventurism in is also very concerning.
MERCEDES STEPHENSON: One source told Global News pilots
and commanders carefully assess the risk
before each flight takes off.
But there is growing concern that the new tactics
signal a new tone from China.
[? Nithu? ?]
- Mercedes Stephenson in Ottawa.
Thanks, Mercedes.