Eric Campbell

China occupied it, claimed it was sovereign Chinese territory.

And every now and again, the Philippines flies a light plane over it just to challenge China's exclusion zone.

We went out with it expecting the usual warnings, you know, the China radios, you are violating Chinese airspace, leave now, leave immediately, etc.

The Taiwanese pilot, you know, radios back, this is our territory, you have no authority to be here.

What we weren't expecting was a bloody great PLA helicopter to come flying at us and it came within three metres of this little Cessna and the downdraft alone could have sent us crashing to Scarborough Shoal.

It was extraordinary.

It is a stunningly dangerous manoeuvre.

We are flying at just 700 feet and a collision would see both aircraft crash.

As if to show this was no mistake, the helicopter moves in again, coming to within 10 metres.

For nearly an hour, they fly alongside us and sometimes above us until we leave the shoal.

By the time we return to Manila, this close encounter has become an international incident.

Crikey!

They nearly landed on top of you.

They were right there.

That was something of a lose your shorts moment.

Yeah, and nobody was expecting it.

The pilot wasn't expecting it.

Nothing like that had happened before.

It just shows how China's escalating what is known as its grey zone activities.

These are sort of aggressive, hostile acts that fall short of war.