The 24 crew members of a US Navy surveillance plane that made an emergency landing in China over the weekend after a midair collision with a Chinese fighter jet include three women and eight codebreakers, the Navy said on Monday.

The codebreakers, known as cryptology specialists, would be involved in the decoding and analysis of the intelligence being collected by the EP-3 plane.

The four-engine turboprop plane is used for eavesdropping. It collects radio, radar and other transmissions from ships or military posts on land, sweeping up communications and data from the air like a vacuum.

President George W. Bush demanded on Monday that China grant immediate US access to the crew.

The list included 22 crew members from the Navy, one Marine and one from the Air Force.

(China Daily 04/03/2001)