One of my "Stuff" readers, Judson B. Grubbs, contributed this item
written by a crew member of the Continental Airlines plane that flew to
Hainan island and brought the American hostages back to Guam.  Worth
reading!

    John Macartney
_______________________-
AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE CHINA RESCUE MISSION April 12, 2001 By Captain Guy

Greider Continental Airlines

Since the mid-air collision on April 1, 2001 between a U.S. Navy EP-3
surveillance aircraft and a Chinese jet fighter, I had watched the news
with mild interest. This was mostly due to the proximity of Guam to
China.
I never dreamed that I would play a role in this intensely watched
international drama. Somewhere in the negotiations between the United
States and the Chinese Governments, it was decided that a civilian
aircraft should be sent to retrieve the 24 crewmembers being detained on
Hainan Island, China. A call was made to Continental Airlines
headquarters in Houston, Texas. Continental was chosen because of its
Guam base and its ability to launch this kind of operation at a moment s
notice. >From there, the operation took shape through the tireless
efforts of many people working behind the scenes in a coordinated effort
between the airline, the military, and the State Department. On
Saturday, April 7, 2001, I received a call at home from Captain Ralph
Freeman, Continental Micronesia Director
of Flight Operations. Ralph told me that the military wanted to charter
one of our jets to conduct a rescue mission and asked if I would be one
of the crewmembers. I said yes without hesitation. Later we were told
that we would need to get passport pictures taken in case the Chinese
Government required visas. We got the required photos and were under the
impression that we would leave immediately. However, the negotiations
slowed over the demand from the Chinese that the U.S. issue an apology
that the U.S. was unwilling to give. Meanwhile, the Continental crew
remained on call 24 hours a day. Our Uniforms were laid out and our bags
were packed and waiting by the door. On Wednesday evening April 11,
2001, at about 630 PM Ralph called again to say that the two parties
were very close to an agreement to release the U.S. crew and to come to
the airport. Upon arrival, we were given a briefing sheet listing the
information that we would need to conduct the flight. We would carry a
Repatriation Team consisting of Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force
specialists, 14 people in all. Doctors, Psychologists, and
communications people with lots of gear
showed up on the ramp near the airplane, ready to board. They were all
dressed in casual civilian clothes. The 155-seat jet was fitted with 2
full stretcher kits bolted in over rows of seats complete with Oxygen
tanks and I.V. bottles. They did not know the condition of the
24 detained crewmembers and they were not going to take any chances.
They were prepared. When our crew was fully assembled, it consisted of
11 people. 2 pilots to fly the jet and an extra to provide relief
because of the extensive flight time involved. They were Captain Tom
Pinardo, Captain Pierre Frenay and I. We also carried 5 very experienced
Flight Attendants.  They were Debbie Percell, Susanne Hendricks, Jean
Tang, Cynthia Iverson, and Beverly Haines. Our 2 onboard mechanics were
Peter Lum and Julius
Aguilo. Our load planner was Mike Torres. At about 930 PM we received a
call asking that we arrive in China no earlier than 600 AM, just about
sunrise. It was obvious that the entire exchange would be photographed
and they wanted daylight conditions. We estimated that a 215 AM
departure from Guam would put us on the ground in Haikou precisely at
600 AM local China time. (2 hours earlier than Guam) Some of us just
stayed on the plane; others accepted the company s invitation to come to
the Continental President s Club, a local VIP lounge at the airport to
try to get some rest. It was difficult to get any rest with our much
anticipated mission so near. By 100 AM the pilots were back in the
briefing room going over the weather, flight plan, fuel requirements and
everything else that goes into a flight. Again, we loaded up the
airplane and finally departed Guam International at precisely 215 AM.
The stretcher kits and medical gear were
not the only special additions to the airplane. The company had loaded a
special file into the navigation database of the flight management
computer (FMC). This allowed us to gain access to navigation data needed
to operate in this part of China, which is not in our normal route
structure. The Repatriation Team carried sophisticated equipment to
communicate with the military and government officials that would
monitor our progress throughout the flight. The route of flight took us
straight west from Guam toward the Philippines along the G467 airway.
About half way across we turned north directly toward Hong Kong. This
routing was designed to avoid
flying through Taiwanese airspace, something that the Chinese could
consider offensive. Approaching the Chinese coastline, we contacted Hong
Kong radar control. After establishing radar contact with us, the
controller gave us a short cut to expedite his traffic flow. This was
bad
because it cut off considerable distance and would result in arriving
too early. We compensated by slowing our airspeed until the computer
again estimated a 600 AM arrival. The instant we turned across the short
cut, the interphone rang from the back of the plane. They wanted to know
why we had deviated from the flight plan. We told them it was due to
Hong Kong traffic and that we had adjusted our airspeed. We were still
on schedule. Now we were approaching our destination, Haikou airport on
Hainan Island. Captain Pierre Frenay was at the controls. The weather
was 2000-ft overcast with 5 miles visibility and light winds out of the
east. Pierre made an ILS approach to and landed on runway 9. Haikou
airport is much the same as many other airports in the world that serve
jet transport aircraft. It has an
11,000-ft runway with standard lighting and navigational facilities. We
touched down at 607 AM. The first early morning light was beginning to
illuminate the sky. The local air traffic controller instructed us to
follow a vehicle that was beside us on an adjacent taxiway. He led us to
a remote part of the airport, away from the main terminal buildings.
Once we had parked and shut down the engines, we saw many uniformed
Chinese military personnel and vehicles. They did not appear to have
weapons.
Portable stairs were brought up to the airplane and we opened the main
cabin door. The Repatriation Team that we carried had been briefed to
close down all of their communications equipment prior to landing and
put it away. They were also briefed to remain in their seats in a
non-threatening posture in case the Chinese military came aboard. The
first and only person to come aboard was an Air China employee. He spoke
English and was to act as the translator between our group and the
Chinese military. He instructed us to have everyone fill out both
arrival and departure documents. He collected all of our passports and
left the aircraft. Before he left, he said that only one person at a
time would be allowed to deplane. Peter Lum,
one of our mechanics went down to supervise the re-fueling and servicing
of the airplane. When that was complete, I went down to do the
walk-around inspection. I did this rather slowly because I wanted to
have a chance to look around. While I was out on the ramp, a skirmish
developed between people who were trying to climb a wall to photograph
our aircraft and the Chinese police. Somehow, CNN managed to carry our
arrival and departure live. Once the airplane was serviced and ready to
go, we looked anxiously around for any sign of the buses that carried
our 24 detainees. Before that could happen however, we had a problem to
deal with. A U.S. military
General who was on the scene to assist in the transfer came storming up
the stairs and demanded to speak with the Captain. Tom Pinardo
responded. The General said that the entire mission was now in jeopardy.
A document called the general declaration, which is standard on all
international flights, had listed the destination as Haikou, China
R.O.C. The initials ROC stand for Republic of China which is ... Taiwan!
The Chinese were very upset over this. Tom quickly crossed out ROC and
replaced it with P.R.O.C. the Peoples
Republic of China. This seemed to satisfy them. With the airplane ready
to go and the paperwork complete, 2 buses pulled up and the 24 U.S.
service men and women saluted as they bolted up the stairs and settled
into the back of the plane. When the last one was aboard, our passports
were returned to us. The stairs were withdrawn; the cabin door closed,
and we started the engines and departed.
It was my turn at the controls. Once airborne heading straight south we
broke through the clouds into the bright sunshine. Pierre made a PA
announcement that we were over international waters and leaving Chinese
airspace. A great cheer rose from the back of the airplane. A short
while later we received a telephone patch over the HF radio from Mr.
Joseph Prueher, U.S Ambassador to China. He wanted to speak with Lt.
Shane Osborne the 26 year old EP-3 Aircraft Commander. Lt. Osborne came
to the cockpit and put on a headset. The Ambassador told him that on
behalf of the President of the United States and the entire country he
wanted to say  welcome home . He went on to say how proud he was of
everything the crew had done from their airmanship in saving the lives
of the crew and aircraft, to their conduct on the ground once they had
been detained. They had truly done an excellent job. After his
conversation with the Ambassador, Lt. Osborne stayed in the cockpit for
quite a while and told us
his story pilot to pilot of what had happened during and immediately
after the mid-air collision with the F-8 Chinese fighter. The fighter
came up under their left wing. This pilot made 2 very close passes
previously that day. He apparently misjudged the intercept and his
vertical stabilizer struck the outboard left propeller on the EP-3. The
U.S. plane was in straight and level flight on autopilot at the time.
The fighter broke into two pieces and plunged into the sea. The U.S.
plane rolled to the left almost inverted, the pilot lost control and
they began to lose altitude. The Chinese fighter had raked back across
the fuselage and knocked off the nose cone causing the aircraft to
buffet wildly. When the nose cone departed the aircraft it collided with
and damaged the number 4 propeller on the right wing. The collision
punctured the pressure vessel and the EP-3 depressurized. The collision
also knocked off the pitot tubes eliminating airspeed and altitude
indications in the cockpit. It also knocked off the forward bracket for
the HF radio antenna. The antenna then flew back and
wrapped around the tail. We were almost upside down and totally out of
control Osborne told us. The dive continued and some crew members donned
parachutes. At about 8,000 feet, Osborne regained straight and level
flight. They considered ditching the aircraft in the South China Sea but
dismissed that option because it was certain to result in loss of life.
They headed for the nearest land, Hainan Island. The U.S. crew now faced
the most difficult landing of their lives. They made numerous  mayday,
mayday, mayday  radio calls on internationally recognized emergency
frequencies. The Chinese did not respond. Somehow, they managed to get
the airplane on the ground. Their next immediate task was to destroy the
sensitive electronic surveillance equipment aboard the EP-3. Meanwhile
the
Chinese military had approached the aircraft in vehicles and were
yelling at them through loudspeakers to deplane. The next 11 days would
be a very uncertain time for them. When we met them, they told us that
they had not been abused or mistreated. Their food was adequate and
plentiful.  Sort of like eating in a Chinese restaurant every day  one
of them said. On the forth day, they got some coffee. On the fifth day,
some cokes were provided. The crew did not know what kind of transport
would be provided for their return home. They were pleased and surprised
to see a chartered airliner from the United States. The rest of the
flight from Haikou to Anderson AFB on Guam was uneventful. During the 5
hour flight the crew was treated to the movie  Men of Honor  and enjoyed
a first class meal. We did not know it at the time but our landing at
Anderson AFB was carried live on
national television. We taxied to the parking ramp at Anderson where
many people had turned out to welcome all of us home. Individuals and
families with kids, both military and civilian waved American flags and
cheered, showing support for the returning U.S. spy plane crew. Once the
24 U.S. crewmembers and the military Repatriation Team had deplaned at
Anderson, they immediately boarded waiting buses and were whisked away.
The Continental crew then became the object of intense media attention.
CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Reuters and various print media interviewed us. A
dizzying swirl of attention after a very long day. We were happy, tired,
and pleased that the mission was so successful as Tom flew the last
segment, a 10-minute flight back to Guam International Airport. This
time our passengers included Bill Meehan, President of Continental
Micronesia, Guam
Governor Carl Gutierrez, Lieutenant Governor Bordallo and others. We
thought the day was just about over but we had one more surprise in
store.
After landing, we were given a hero s welcome of our own. The airport
fire department was in place to give us the traditional water cannon
salute, a rainbow arch of water for us to taxi under. A reception was
held at the gate with food, balloons, commemorative plaques, and more
media interviews with the local television station. This was very heady
stuff. As I look back on this one of a kind operation. It could not have
happened without the tremendous effort and skills of many people working
behind the scenes. Bill Meehan, Mitch Dubner at the SOCC in Houston, Tom
Rinow at the CMI SOCC, Captain Ralph Freeman, CMI Director of Flight
Operations, and many others had major rolls in coordinating this flight.
It was accomplished through teamwork. The fact that it came off without
a hitch is testimony to how well all these people did their jobs. The
exposure that Continental
Airlines received over this is a marketing manager s dream comes true.
We will be remembered by millions of people as the company who conducted
the  China Rescue Mission . This was a proud day for Continental
Airlines and for America.