US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Tuesday the United States was relieved the episode was over. "We're glad to resolve this issue and to get the airplane back. We do seek a productive relationship with China," he said.
Meanwhile, a team of US experts is to evaluate what kind of intelligence might be lost with the high-tech US spy plane, the US Defense Department announced Tuesday.
"We have put together an inter-agency team to assess potential damage to US national security: What might have been compromised? What pieces of equipment might need to be modified? What procedures might need to be modified because of that?" spokesman Rear Admiral Craig Quigley said.
The announcement came as the EP-3 US navy surveillance plane was due to arrive back in US territory after being grounded for three months on the tarmac at China's Hainan Island following its emergency landing there in the wake of a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter jet.
Quigley said the navy has so far spent some 5.8 million dollars to recover the plane, which is due to arrive in the United States packed in shipping crates aboard a giant Russian An-124 cargo plane.
Flying via the Philippines, and Hawaii, the cargo plane will land in an air force base in Marietta, Georgia, around 7:00 am (1100 GMT) Thursday, said Greg Caries, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin.
The plane's manufacturer expects it to fly again.
"We are negotiating a contract with the Navy to rebuild the aircraft. It will take several months," Caries said. He declined to estimate the cost of putting the EP-3 back into the skies.
Commander John Fleming of the US Pacific Command in Hawaii in an earlier conversation with AFP said the 80-million-dollar aircraft, which was packed with high-tech electronic surveillance gear, would not be able to fly again.
(chinadaily.com.cn 07/04/2001)
