Originally Posted by
N2264J
The plane was at 14,000 feet and climbing. Doesn't seem consistent with an
attacking aircraft that one would expect is probably trying to stay "under the radar."
Monday AM QB. The Captain was told the aircraft was descending, and acted accordingly. The crewman who told him apparently misread the radar due a data display anomaly. The ship's IFF (recorded by the ship's computer) also identified it as military, this was likely signal confusion with Iranian fighters operating near the departure airport. The ship was in a hot gun battle with Iranian warships...instigated by Iran. Maybe they shouldn't have started a shootout and then flow an airliner through a firefight. No fault of the pilots, I'm sure they weren't told.
Maybe the fault was that the technology wasn't perfect? The ship was designed for very fast-paced battle against the soviets in the open ocean, it was being employed somewhat out of it's comfort zone at the time.
Originally Posted by
N2264J
After realizing a civilian airliner is shot down, I suspect any perceived Iranian
hostilities may become more fungible. It took several decades to find out the
USS Maddox wasn't really attacked by the Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin which resulted in an unpopular war.
Iranian hostilities are legion...they are imbedded in the culture to a degree, and the flames are constantly fanned by the islamic regime. They hate, in no particular order, Israel, the US, the arab states, and Sunni muslims. There is some legit basis for their dislike of the west, specifically the joint UK/US manipulation of their internal affairs WRT to the Shah. But that doesn't give them the right to close the strait of Hormuz and destroy the global economy.
Originally Posted by
N2264J
I don't know what happened but it appears a new investigation is warranted by an unbias 3rd party with subpoena power.
If it's warranted it will probably happen.