A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon approaches a KC-135 Stratotanker for refueling over the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 1, 2024. (Melany Bermudez/U.S. Air Force)

A U.S. Navy surveillance plane flew over the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the first such transit there since mid-September, according to the U.S. 7th Fleet.

The P-8A Poseidon, a long-range aircraft equipped with an advanced sensor suite, flew through international airspace over the 110-mile-wide channel that separates mainland China from Taiwan, the fleet announced in a news release Tuesday.

“By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds navigational rights and freedoms of all nations,” the release said.

The aircraft flew northeast, from the South China Sea to the East China Sea, over the course of about an hour, 7th Fleet spokeswoman Lt. j.g. Sarah Merrill told Stars and Stripes by email Friday.

The flight was not in response to any particular event, she added.

The fleet last advertised a Poseidon flight over the strait on Sept. 17, which marked the first time the aircraft had flown there in five months.

The U.S. routinely sends warships and, less frequently, aircraft, through the channel. So far this calendar year, three Navy planes and seven warships have made the trip.

While the Navy typically describes the transits as a routine means of traveling between the two seas, Beijing views them as provocative and regularly condemns them as support for Taiwan.

China considers the island a breakaway province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

China’s Eastern Theater Command on Wednesday said it scrambled aircraft and dispatched ships to monitor the Poseidon’s trip. The U.S. “distorted legal principles, confused the public and misled international cognition,” according to Tuesday post to the command’s official Weibo social media account.

Merrill said “all interactions with foreign military forces were consistent with international norms and did not impact the operation.”