I admit War Time is different. I was refering to incidents not in War Time.
The military does not give equal consideration to problems outside of hostel military action.
In this particular incident, the pilot and crew of the US aircraft were not at fault. The Chinese fighter crashed into them while they were 50 miles off the coast. One of the Chinese fighters was lost in the collision. It took the heroic efforts of the US commander to land his plane safely. I would consider what the Chinese did to be a hostile action.