Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
TO MARINA CHINA The helicopter flew to less than 10 feet (3 meters) from a plane of the Philippines patrol on Tuesday in an area in dispute of the South China Sea, which led the Philippine pilot to warn by radio: “You are flying too close , you are very dangerous. “
The Chinese helicopter was trying to force a Cessna caravan turbopropropulsor plane that belongs to the Philippines and Aquatic Resources Fishing Office of what China affirms is its airspace about the so disputed Scarborough Shoal in the northwest of the Philippines.
The joint patrol of American flies with the Philippines near the Shoal region guarded by China
A journalist from Associated Press and other foreign media invited on the plane witnessed the tense 30 -minute confrontation while the Filipino plane continued with its low altitude patrol around.
“You are flying too close, you are very dangerous and you endanger the life of our crew and passengers,” said the pilot Filipino to the Chinese navy helicopter by radio at one time. “Keep your plane away from us, is violating the security standard established by Faa and Icao.”
The pilot referred to the standard distance between the aircraft required by the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States and the International Civil Aviation Organization to prevent air disasters.
There were no signs that the Filipino plane had to alter its planned path and altitude to avoid collision.
A Chinese military helicopter flies near a Philippine fishing office and an aquatic aircraft (BFAR) on Scarborough Shoal on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Joeal Calupitan)
The Philippine Coast Guard and the Fisheries Office said in a statement that they remain “committed to affirm our sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the Western Sea of the Philippines, despite the aggressive actions and stairs of China.”
They referred to the Filipino name for the stretch of waters in the South China Sea closer to the Western Coast of the Philippines.
The Chinese army, which referred to Scarborough Shoal by his Chinese name, said the plane had “illegally unregistered the airspace of China Huangyan island without the permission of the Chinese government.”
The Chinese theater command organized the naval and aerial forces to track and warn the plane, said Colonel Tian Junli, spokesman for the command, in a written statement published online.
Filipins “correct and incorrect confused and spread false narratives,” said the statement.
Tuesday’s meeting, which is expected to be protested by the Filipino government, is the last turning point in a territorial confrontation of decades in one of the most busy commercial routes in the world, which involves China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The confrontations in the high seas have been increased among the Chinese and Filipin coast guards In the last two years in Scarborough and Second Thomas Shoal, where a ship from the Filipino Navy on land has served as an advanced military territorial position since 1999, but since then it has been surrounded by the Chinese Coast Guard, the Navy and others ships
China displayed its naval force around Scarborough after a tense confrontation with the Filipino ships in 2012.
The following year, Philippines brought his disputes with China to international arbitration. A 2016 decision made by an arbitration panel backed by the United Nations invalidated China’s expansive claim in the South China Sea based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
China, signer of UNClos as the Philippines, refused to participate in arbitration, rejected its result and continues to challenge it.
Faced by China’s military power, the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has resorted to a shame campaign: embedding Philippine and Foreigners journalists in their maritime and aerial patrols in an attempt to expose the increasingly assertive actions of Beijing.
Click here to get the Fox News application
Philippines has also been strengthening its security alliances with the United States, Japan, Australia, France, Canada, the European Union and other Western countries to underpin its external defense.
The United States says that it is obliged to defend the Philippines, its ally of the oldest treaty in Asia, if the Philippine Forces, ships and airplanes are under an armed attack, even in the South China Sea. China warned the United States and its allies that are not entrusing in what calls a purely Asian dispute.
