Russian airline wins tender to return spy plane to US

Russian airline Polyot has won the tender for the right to transport the US Navy spy plane that landed in China out of the country and back to the United States, a company official said today.

Leonid Shirobokov, a spokesman for Polyot, told the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies that his company had won the tender, which had been announced last week by the US Defense Department.

‘‘Now, the airline is preparing to perform this task,’’ Shirobokov said.

He said a Russian An-124-100, called Ruslan, will take the EP-3 spy plane from the military airfield on the Chinese island of Hainan, but he did not give a date for the operation.

The US aircraft collided with a Chinese fighter during a reconnaissance flight along the Chinese border on April 1. It made an emergency landing on Hainan Island off southern China and the crew was detained by the Chinese for 11 days.

Last Thursday, the United States and China announced a plan to disassemble the plane for shipment to America aboard a chartered Russian aircraft.

Washington originally wanted to repair the plane and fly it home, but China refused that option.

Pentagon officials said chartering a Russian Antonov, described as the largest cargo aircraft in the world, was necessary because China had refused to allow a US military plane to come for the crippled aircraft.

A Pentagon spokesman said the operation to dismantle the aircraft, pack it aboard the Antonov and return it to the United States would most likely take several weeks.