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Start 2/5/2000
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その35
「米中軍用機接触事件続報」
強気なのはけっこうだが・・・
現在2001年4月18日午後12時32分。今日はその34の続報をお伝えしよう と思う。ニューズウィーク誌の最新世論調査によると、米国民の69％が米中軍用機
接触事件に対するブッシュ大統領の処理を支持し、51％が、同事件の米中関係への 影響はごく短期的なものに過ぎない、とみているそうだ。どうも事故の重要性に関し
て認識不足のような気がして仕方がない。
中国側はアメリカの対応に不快感を表明しているようだが、事はかなり深刻である。両国の健全なパートナーシップは世界平和という点から考えてもかなり重用である。その関係を損ねかねない重大事件に対する米国民の認識がこれではあまりにも寂し
い。
ともあれ、解放された乗員のインタビュー等が日米のメディアで取り上げられていたので、今日はそれを紹介しようと思う。日本にとっても対岸の火事で済まされない問
題なので、読者の皆さんが少しでも考えるきっかけになればと切に思う。出典は Yomiuri On-Lineとcnn.comから。特にCNNの名物キャスター、ラリー・キング氏によ
る乗員へのインタビューはぜひともじっくりとご覧頂きたい。会話をそのまま掲載し てあるので読むだけでも英語の勉強になること請け合いである。ただし、100％真
実を言ってるとは限らないのでそのつもりで読んでいただければと思う。
読売新聞のHPより http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/
<ワシントン15日=永田和男>米中軍用機接触事件で中国・海南島に拘束され、十二日に解放された米電子偵察機ＥＰ3の乗員二十四人は十四日、ハワイのヒッカム空軍基地からワシントン州の海軍航空基地に帰還し、家族や同僚、一般市民ら数千人の熱烈な歓迎を受けた。乗員らはヒッカム基地出発に先立つ記者会見で、事故原因が中国機の危険な接近にあることを強調、「米国が中国に謝る必要はまったくない」と語った。当事者である乗員が公式に事件の模様を説明し、中国を非難したのは初めて。
会見でＥＰ3のシェーン・オズボーン機長は「接触前、二機の中国機が二回にわたっ て、我々からわずか三―五フィート（約九十センチ―一・五メートル）の鼻先をかす
め、パイロットが挑発的なしぐさをするのも見えた」と中国機の「危険な操縦」の模様を説明。接触の瞬間は「こいつ（中国機のパイロット）にやられたと思った」という。
自動操縦で飛行中だった偵察機は、接触のはずみで大きく左に傾いてほぼ反転した状態となり、約二千二百五十メートルも降下した後、ようやく体勢を立て直した。その
間、機内は「大混乱」となり、機長は一時は海上着水も考えたが、最終的に海南島へ の着陸を決断。その際、機密情報の破棄や機材の破壊を命じたが、その作業の詳細については「語れない」とした。また、海南島に緊急着陸する際は、十五回も緊急避難信号を発したと述べた。
CNNのHPより http://www.cnn.com/
Larry King: Freed crewmen offer new details about collision, detainment
April 14, 2001 Web posted at: 10:38 p.m. EDT (0238 GMT)
Freed Navy crewmen John Comerford and David Cecka appeared Saturday on
"Larry King Live" and offered new details about the April 1 collision
between a U.S. surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet, and the crew's
subsequent detainment.
KING: So you see these Chinese fighter jets up and around you all the
time on these missions, right?
COMERFORD: I wouldn't say all the time sir, I would say it's almost routine.
I've seen them several times but definitely not every flight.
KING: Did you know that this one fellow was coming kind of close?
OMERFORD: Absolutely. I was actually seated -- and there's no window at
my position -- taking some notes based on what people were telling me.
And I could tell, from the urgency of people's voices on the communications
system on board the plane, that this was not a typical intercept, that
this fighter -- the lead fighter -- was being extremely aggressive. He
was gesturing and I could tell from crew members' voices -- from the observers
-- that this was out of the norm.
KING: When it was going down, frankly, were you scared, lieutenant?
COMERFORD: I was scared. Honestly, based on how things felt. I didn't
have a whole lot of visual reference. Based on how things felt and the
shaking of the plane, yeah, there was a time when I really thought to
myself, 'Wow this guy just killed us.' And that was a pretty intense feeling,
I'm sure."
KING: David, where were you in the plane?
CECKA: I was sitting just up from Lt. Comerford and I'd heard that the
plane was coming pretty close and so I'd gotten up to take a look and
it just took one look of the plane off our wing tip and I'd seen enough.
I went back and sat down and strapped in. Shortly after that the plane
began to bump us. Originally, I'd thought possibly he was just playing,
maybe bumping the tip of our wing, trying to do whatever he was trying
to do. And the next thing I know, it was a real hard, hard bang and a
then a second, and then a very loud, bang and we went nose down and I
kind of went into automatic pilot after that. I heard a command to bail
out and our training took over after that.
KING: Did you think you were going to bail out?
CECKA: I thought so. After we regained somewhat control of the aircraft,
we were all in our parachutes and lined up. They were moving the ladder
back and preparing to open the main cabin door. And it was just second-by-second
and there was a good opportunity that we would have gone out.
KING: Were you scared?
CECKA: I was terrified when we first were struck, to be perfectly honest.
And when the nose went down, it was terrifying. But that lasted three
seconds and I distanced myself and our training took over and got us through
the ordeal.
KING: Were you surprised at how well you were treated by the Chinese?
COMERFORD: No, to be honest. There was a question, I think, in all of
our minds as to exactly how we would be treated. And we discussed this
on the ground as a crew. You know, China, being a member of the U.N. Security
Council, obviously the United States and China, it's definitely in both
of our interests to treat each others' military members as well as we
can. There was no hostility, really, anywhere in this whole situation.
It was an accident. So, I would have been very surprised if we had been
mistreated, to be honest. China's human-rights record is something they're
very concerned about. So I think they were extremely conscious of that.
KING: Did you ever fear for your safety once you were down?
CECKA: It was just a continuing change of events. When we sat down, immediately
we began to think what would happen next. Originally, we were concerned
for our safety, of course, and the safety of the rest of our crew members.
So we tried to take care of each other and we quickly bonded and became
really tight and helped each other out through the whole thing.
KING: We kept hearing how good the food was. Was it that good, the food
they brought you?
CECKA: The food was not bad. The first couple meals were really good.
Then they started to introduce us to some of their more traditional cuisine.
In addition, it ranged from boiled fish heads to chicken feet to shrimp
with tentacles.
なんとなく中途半端なところでインタビューが終わっている気がするが、乗員が述べ ている事故当時の状況は十分わかっていただけるかと思う。では今日この辺で。
（その３６に続く）
 その36へ
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