Japan's Defense Ministry officials say a Chinese warplane has flown exceptionally close to Japanese self-defense force aircraft over the East China Sea.
Officials say a Chinese SU-27 fighter flew from behind and passed an OP-3C image data collecting plane of the Maritime Self-Defense Force at around 11 AM on Saturday near the median line between Japan and China.
Japan and China have declared overlapping air defense dentification zones in the airspace.
The Chinese aircraft came as close as about 50 meters from the OP-3C.
About 1 hour later, an SU-27 flew within 30 meters of one of the Air Self-Defense Force's electronic intelligence planes in almost the same airspace. It is not clear whether it was the same plane.
Defense officials say it is the first time that a Chinese aircraft has flown less than 100 meters from a Japanese self-defense plane. The planes gave no radio warning before approaching.
The Japanese aircraft suffered no damage. Sources say the self-defense planes were on a mission to monitor activities in the East China Sea, including joint naval drills by Chinese and Russian navies.
Pictures taken by the Self-Defense Forces show white missile-like objects beneath wings of the Chinese plane.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140525_05.html
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