China Incident

* A train hitting a car, a cargo ship hitting a speedboat and a four-engine transport hitting a fighter plane have one thing in common. The carelessly driven, smaller, more maneuverable vehicle is always at fault, no exceptions. Assuming that the plane did veer suddenly into the fighter, it is still the fighter pilot’s fault because he is trained to avoid such maneuvers by other fighters. Avoiding an ungainly four-engine plane is child’s play.

China owes the United States both an apology for the pathetic airmanship of its pilot and compensation for the damage caused by the fighter to the transport. Also, a plane flying above international waters is not spying; it is collecting readily available insecure data.

LARRY SEVERSON

Fountain Valley