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Book Review, © Copyright 2001, Jim Loy
On April 1, 2001, Lieutenant Shane Osborn was flying a US Navy EP-3 reconnaisance plane (KR919), with a crew of 14 people, over international waters in the South China Sea. On several occasions, harrassing Chinese F8 Finback fighters had flown dangerously close to these slow propellor driven planes. This time one of the fighters struck the propellors of engine one, and then the noses of the two planes collided, breaking the fighter in two, and breaking off the nose of the EP-3. The US plane experienced explosive decompression, and went into an inverted dive, dropping about 8000 feet. Lieutenant Osborn regained control of his aircraft, and ordered his crew to prepare to either bail out or ditch in the ocean. They flew to an island off the coast of China, and were held prisoner by the Chinese for eleven days. Lieutenant Osborn was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
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