No, probable suicide for the pilot and crew is not a requirement. P-3
ditchings have a very poor survival record. The EP-3, known as "Skypig" for
the projections on it's belly resembling the mammary glands of a sow pig, is
an especially poor candidate. Here's some background on P-3 ditchings.
Note the link to the totally successful VP-47 ditching at the bottom of the
page.

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My real e-mail address is:




"Luca Morandini" wrote in message
...
Ogden Johnson III wrote:
"Mike Yared" wrote:
The key part of that report, whether missed by you or the Washington
Times deponent won't even try to guess, was that the crew didn't
manage to destroy all of the classified material and/or equipment
aboard the plane, so some compromise of classified material and/or
equipment to the PRC certainly occurred.

OJ III
[Of course the report didn't identify anything that might have been
compromised; and, as reported in the press, did not blame the crew for
their failure to destroy everything classified, apparently recognizing
that they might have been a tad overtasked by the situation they found
themselves in.]

I know this controversy is old, and, to some extent, irrelevant, but...
was the pilot bound by regulations to ditch the aircraft ?

I mean, when he realized all the sensitive material couldn't be
destroyed, shouldn't he set the autopilot on and bail out himself (after
allowing for the rest of the crew to bail out safely, of course) ?

Please, don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing the crew of cowardice...
just asking whether they were bound to follow this course of action or
not.

Regards,

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Luca Morandini
GIS Consultant

http://space.virgilio.it/kumora/index.html
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