Missing Chinese pilot had challenged earlier spy flights

The Chinese fighter pilot who collided with a US spy plane had challenged the American plane on previous occasions, a US senator claimed today.

Senator Richard Lugar, who is a senior member of the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees, said of the Chinese aviator: ‘‘It appears to me on this occasion he simply exceeded his grasp.’’

Lugar said: ‘‘I think behind-the-scenes activities (to break the stalemate) may be more substantial than are apparent at the front.’’

He defended the Bush administration’s handling of the incident as well as the routine US surveillance flights over southern Asia.

‘‘The Chinese pilot involved is apparently the same pilot who’s been observed by our reconnaissance aircraft in the past,’’ he said. ‘‘The flight we were flying is a regular flight, known to the Chinese, known to the Indians, the Pakistanis, everyone in the area. ... So there were very few surprises with this lumbering plane moving along.’’

Nevertheless, Lugar added, in recent days Chinese fliers, ‘‘and this particular pilot on several occasions,’’ had challenged the surveillance flight. ‘‘It is tragic for him and tragic for the Chinese and tragic for us, because it was only a miracle that our plane got down safely and the 24 Americans are still alive.’’

On Capitol Hill, where pro-China sentiment is hard to find in the best of times, Representative Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, who opposed granting China permanent normal trade relations last year, has introduced a bill to revoke that status.

‘‘A favoured trading partner with our country would follow proper protocol and not continue to hold our servicemen and women, along with our equipment, after being asked for their return,’’ said Hunter. ‘‘The fact is, while we trade with China, they prepare for war.’’