Holy Moly

You gotta wonder how long these passive-aggressive fly-bys will happen until something really bad happens...

Here's a longer video:

From that ABC link:

A Chinese J-16 jet fighter flew directly in front of an American surveillance plane flying in international airspace over the South China Sea last Friday, forcing the U.S. Air Force plane to fly through the fighter's wake turbulence and causing the U.S. aircraft to shake.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command labeled the Chinese intercept as "unprofessional" and "an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver" and released a video taken from inside the American plane's cockpit that captured the incident.

"A People's Republic of China J-16 fighter pilot performed an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver during the intercept of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft, May 26, 2023," said a statement from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

"The PRC pilot flew directly in front of the nose of the RC-135, forcing the U.S. aircraft to fly through its wake turbulence," said the statement. "The RC-135 was conducting safe and routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace, in accordance with international law."

The fighter jet came within 400 feet of the U.S. plane. A senior U.S. defense official said Tuesday that this is an increasing pattern of hostility:

"We don't believe it's done by pilots operating independently," said the official. "We believe it's part of a wider pattern we see in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and elsewhere."

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