A People's Liberation Army guard stands outside the Chinese Military Museum in Beijing Tuesday. The inset shows an EP-3 aircraft, the same type as the U.S. spy plane that's being held in China.
Experts weigh in.
The Chinese fighter and its pilot are still missing. On Tuesday, Chinese authorities permitted U.S. diplomats to meet with the plane's 24 crewmembers for the first time since the emergency landing. However, the Chinese are refusing to immediately release the crew members or the plane. Numerous sources have reported that Chinese authorities, defying U.S. demands, boarded the plane and removed the crew, but this has not been confirmed. However, the UPI wire service did quote a former intelligence official who claims to have seen spy photos collaborating those reports.