101
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the U.S. military said, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region.

In the night intercept, the Shenyang J-11 twin-engine fighter closed on the U.S. Air Force plane at an “uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement released late Thursday.

“We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision,” the military said.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] krayj@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

There's only 66 nautical miles of international water between FL and Cuba.

The South China Sea is 1.3 million square nautical miles.

You are a few orders of magnitude off for a rational comparison.

[-] Numberone@startrek.website -5 points 1 year ago

You're comparing linear distance to surface area of the south China sea. I'd be curious to know how close to Chinese airspace this bomber or group was flying. Fair enough though, if you think it's not analagous we could open it up to the entire gulf of Mexico/Caribbean. It seems pretty clear to me that Chinese aircraft in that area would result in a tantrum that would probably escallate beyond tailgating.

[-] krayj@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, I am comparing linear distance to surface area, but if we call that 66 mile distance a diameter, were talking about roughly 3500 sq miles...which is a rounding error compared to the vastness of the south china sea.

The south china sea is longer than it is wide, but even at its narrowest width between Phillipines and Vietnam, it's over 550 miles across. That's just incomparable to the distance between Florida and Cuba. Anything between Florida and Cuba is figuratively parked right in USA's backyard.

I legit tried to find the exact location of this latest aerial encounter between China fighter pilot and allied forces aircraft (because you're right, that's relevant) but couldn't find it...the info must either be classified or intentionally censored.

this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
101 points (96.3% liked)

World News

39102 readers
2184 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS