The EP-3 came close to becoming uncontrollable, at one point sustaining a nearly inverted roll, but was able to make a successful, unauthorized emergency landing at Lingshui airfield on Hainan island, where the two J-8II fighters involved in the incident had been based.

After several days of interrogations, the crew was repatriated separately to the United States while the aircraft remained in China, reportedly taken apart for research on American intelligence technology.

Although the crew attempted to destroy as much classified material, hardware, and software on the aircraft as possible prior to the emergency landing, there is little doubt that the EP-3 was exploited by Chinese intelligence services.

An American team was later permitted to enter Hainan in order to dismantle the aircraft, which was subsequently airlifted on board two of Polet Flight's Antonov An-124s back to the United States for reassembly and repair.

[2] This incident is fictionally portrayed in the TV Series JAG: Season 7, Episode 9 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0613245/?ref_=ttep_ep9 On 29 January 2018, a near accident was reported on the Black Sea, when a Russian Su-27 passed a U.S. EP-3 at a distance of several feet.

[5] On 19 July 2019, a U.S. EP-3 was "performing a multi-nationally recognized and approved mission in international airspace" over the Caribbean Sea, when a Venezuelan Su-30 aggressively shadowed it at an unsafe distance.