Landing on a Chinese base without permission, the pilot of the EP-3 Navy data-gathering plane has had a lot of questions to answer to China and to the United States. I’m sure the flying ability of the plane and the time left to stay in the air counted.

Although we are trained for such emergencies, sometimes we throw out the book and go without our natural instincts. In this case it appears the pilot thought more of the crew safety first, which is commendable assuming he had all the secrets destroyed.

As a former pilot, I don’t hold to the argument to deep six the plane and hope the crew survives. That’s a call I’d have to make.

Frank Slason

Somerville