The Philippine Coast Guard condemned “dangerous” manoeuvres by a Chinese Navy helicopter Tuesday as it flew within three metres (10 feet) of a surveillance flight carrying a group of journalists over the contested Scarborough Shoal.
An AFP photographer on the flight described seeing the helicopter tail the plane before drawing near the left wing, close enough to see personnel aboard filming them.
The helicopter had been “as close as three metres” to the fisheries bureau aircraft, the coast guard said in a statement. The plane had been flying about 213 metres above the water on a mission to observe Chinese vessels in the area.
“Around 0839 hours, a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-Navy) helicopter … performed dangerous flight maneuvers towards the BFAR aircraft. This reckless action posed a serious risk to the safety of the pilots and passengers during the MDA flight,” the coast guard statement said.
The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the South China Sea — has been a flashpoint between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012.
The incident comes less than a week after Australia rebuked Beijing for “unsafe” military conduct, accusing a Chinese fighter of releasing flares within 30 metres of a surveillance plane patrolling above the South China Sea.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman at the time said the Australian plane had “deliberately intruded into the airspace around China’s Xisha Islands”, Beijing’s name for the Paracel Islands, which Vietnam and Taiwan also claim.
China claims the South China Sea in almost its entirety despite an international ruling in 2016 concluding this has no legal basis.
The Scarborough Shoal, which lies 240 kilometres west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometres from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan, has been the site of repeated confrontations as Manila has resupplied Filipino fishermen in the area.
In December, the Philippines said the Chinese coast guard fired water cannon and “sideswiped” a government fisheries department vessel.
Manila released a video appearing to show a Chinese coast guard ship firing a torrent of water at the BRP Datu Pagbuaya.
Other footage apparently taken from the Philippine ship showed its crew shouting “Collision! Collision!” as the much larger Chinese vessel nears its right-hand side before crashing into it.
Manila and treaty ally Washington have deepened their defense cooperation since Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022 and began pushing back on China’s claims to the South China Sea.
The Philippines said in December it hoped to acquire the US Typhon missile system as part of a push to secure its maritime interests.
The mid-range missile system, deployed earlier in 2024 for annual joint military exercises, has a range of 300 miles (480 kilometres), though a longer-range version is in development.
Philippine Army Chief Lieutenant-General Roy Galido has said the Typhon platform “will protect our floating assets”, a reference to ships of the Philippine navy, coast guard and other vessels.
China has warned that acquiring the system risks triggering an “arms race”.
