Standoff in the skies: Witnessing an unsafe intercept over the South China Sea

“You’re flying too close,” the Philippine pilot warned over the radio, as a Chinese military helicopter edged to within 3 meters of a Philippine government plane on patrol over the flash point Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.

The Feb. 18 incident, witnessed by The Japan Times from aboard a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) aircraft, was one of the countries’ closest encounters ever in the skies above the disputed waterway — and one that could well have ended in disaster.

“You’re conducting dangerous maneuvers that endanger the lives of our crew and passengers,” the pilot went on to say, calling on the Z-9 chopper — deployed from a nearby People’s Liberation Army Navy warship — to “keep a safe distance.”