Spy Photos
10. China, 2001
After a Chinese fighter jet collided with a U.S. EP-3 Aries
reconnaissance aircraft in international waters off China, this
IKONOS image of the crippled U.S. plane sitting on the parking ramp
of an airbase on China's Hainan Island shortly after it landed there
became an icon for the crisis between the U.S. and China. (The
Chinese pilot ejected from his plane, which then crashed in the
ocean, but he was never found.) The image also demonstrated the
ability of commercial satellite imagery to quickly tell a story in a
denied country. The Chinese government eventually allowed U.S.
officials to dismantle and retrieve the plane using a Russian
transport aircraft.