The Taiwanese air force on Monday dismissed claims that one of its airplanes had flown dangerously close to a mainland warplane during a recent surveillance operation, potentially causing a collision or even armed conflict.

The incident was first mentioned on a Facebook page used by Taiwanese servicemen to share anecdotes. It alleged that a Taiwanese P-3C anti-submarine aircraft recently flew within 300 meters of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army warplane in order to photograph it.

It also said that the commander of the Taiwanese aircraft appeared to be emotional and used abusive language while giving orders to the pilot.

Those claims were dismissed as untrue on Monday, in a statement issued by Taiwan’s Air Force Command Headquarters. It said the commander had followed all flying rules and regulations during the operation.

Retired air force lieutenant general Chang Yen-ting explained that the P-3C aircraft is less agile than fighter jets and has a long wingspan, so it must never approach nearer than 167 meters to a surveillance target, to avoid collision.

Even a distance of 300 meters is considered dangerous, Chang said. If both planes were to shift 100 meters toward each other at the same time, their buffer would immediately shrink to just 100 meters, he said. This would be very dangerous, especially because Taiwanese planes may not be able to establish communications with PLA aircraft, Chang said.

Taiwan has frequently used P-3C aircraft to intercept PLA warplanes crossing into the island’s airspace. In one recent case, on Nov. 11, a P-3C plane took off from Pingtung air base in southern Taiwan to intercept a Y-8 surveillance aircraft entering the southwest corner of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, according to the administrator of another Facebook page that posts maps of flight movements across the Taiwan Strait.

A flight map showed the Taiwanese plane flying at an altitude of 21,000 feet, 1,623 feet lower than the Chinese aircraft.

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