China fighter jet flares scare sparks Australian alarm

A Chinese fighter jet dropped a flare in front of an Australian surveillance plane over the South China Sea in an incident described as “unsafe and unprofessional” by the Albanian government.

Defense Minister Richard Marles said RAAF P-8A Poseidon aircraft were on routine patrol on Sunday and flew alongside the People’s Liberation Army jet.

He said the Chinese plane twice fired flares “very close” to the Australian plane.

“After reviewing the incident very carefully, we felt that this was both unsafe and unprofessional,” he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

“We are now making this public as we have determined that this is both unsafe and unprofessional.”

No Australian personnel were injured in this interaction, but Mr Marles said a different outcome could have occurred.

The federal government complained about the incident to the Chinese embassy in Canberra and made representations through the Australian embassy in Beijing.

Asked how close the flares were fired from the Australian plane, Mr Marles refused to give an exact distance but said it was “very close”.

“We’re talking about a P8 aircraft… it’s a large jet aircraft that’s not particularly capable of immediate maneuverability, and the proximity of those flares meant it was unsafe,” he said.