A US patrol plane was just intercepted by 2 Chinese military aircraft over the South China Sea

Natasha Bertrand

May 19, 2016, 03:33 IST

REUTERS/Murad Sezer

A U.S. Navy P-3 Orion Maritime patrol aircraft takes off from Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, July 26, 2015. Kurdish militants killed two Turkish soldiers in a roadside bombing on Sunday, the military said, apparently retaliating for Ankara's crackdown on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched in tandem with strikes on Islamic State insurgents in Syria. Long a member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, Turkey made a dramatic turnaround this week by granting the alliance access to its air bases and launching air raids against both the jihadist movement and the PKK.

Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a US Navy aircraft that was flying in a "routine patrol" over the South China Sea on Wednesday, a Defense Department spokesman said in a written statement.

"Two tactical aircraft from the People's Republic of China" intercepted the plane, said Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, according to NBC. "Initial reports characterized the incident as unsafe."

The J-11 Chinese fighter jets apparently flew roughly 50 feet from the US plane, a Navy P-3 Orion aircraft.

China has asserted territorial claims over the South China Sea, which has large oil and natural gas deposits and has also been claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Washington has not recognized China's claims to the waters, and has accused Beijing, which is building islands there, of "militarizing" the area. China has created over 3,000 acres of land in the Spratly Islands, around which the US has conducted "freedom of navigation" patrols that have irritated China.