BEIJING: China’s navy dispatched a military plane to one of the country’s man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea, the Defense Ministry said, in what is believed to be the first openly acknowledged mission of its kind.

A brief statement on the ministry’s website said the plane was on patrol when it was diverted to Fiery Cross Reef on Sunday morning to pick up three injured construction workers.

The plane then flew to Sanya on China’s southernmost island province of Hainan where it landed at Fenghuang International Airport, the ministry said.

Details about the plane and where it was based were not given, although a photo accompanying the report showed a four-propeller Y-8 transport being met by an ambulance.

The Global Times newspaper said Sunday’s flight marked “the first time a Chinese military plane has openly landed on Yongshujiao,” using the Chinese name for Fiery Cross Reef. The speed with which the mission was accomplished was a testament to China’s long-term policy of patrolling over the South China Sea, said the paper, a nationalist tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily. China completed the runway on Fiery Cross Reef last year and in January flew three commercial jets to the island as a test.