A Chinese warplane made a series of maneuvers that were dangerously close to a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft as it flew off the coast of China, the Pentagon said Friday.
The Pentagon said the Chinese fighter jet posed a threat to the lives of the crew onboard the Navy P-8 Poseidon when it did a "barrel roll" maneuver over the top of the plane and passed by the plane's nose to show that it was armed, Fox News reported.
The Aug. 19 incident, which took place in international airspace, was "unsafe and unprofessional" and went against international law, Pentagon Press Secretary Admiral John Kirby said Friday.
At one point the Chinese fighter jet came within 30 feet of the Navy plane as it flew 135 miles east of Hainan Island, Kirby said according to Fox News. The jet passed across the nose of the Poseidon in a way that exposed its belly, which Kirby said was probably done to show the U.S. crew the jet was armed.
Washington expressed strong objections to China's military through diplomatic measures.
"We have registered our strong concerns to the Chinese about the unsafe and unprofessional intercept which posed a risk to the safety and wellbeing of the air crew and was inconsistent with customary international law," Kirby said according to Fox News.
"Also... this undermines efforts to continue developing military-to-military relations with the Chinese military."
Hainan island is the same island another U.S. Navy aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing on after it collided with a Chinese jet in 2001, the Associated Press reported. The Chinese pilot was killed.
