The interception of a United States Air Force reconnaissance jet by a Chinese fighter over the South China Sea last month should be seen as a potential warning of how easily, and quickly things can go terribly wrong, analysts say.
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“Flying aircraft close to each other at 500 miles per hour with unfriendly intentions is generally unsafe,” said Blake Herzinger, a nonresident fellow and Indo-Pacific defense policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “At that range, an unexpected maneuver or an equipment issue can cause a terrible accident in under a second,” Herzinger said. And Herzinger said the current state of US-China military relations means accidents could quickly turn into armed confrontation.
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