http://news.sky.com/story/1084647/missi ... over-syria

That's just one big from me

This could have been targeted by the opposition for the Russian support of Assad. Though why anyone is flying into a war zone is another matter, and probably why a charter flight was targeted. Maybe it was filled with lots of Russian Sports Advisors to help the Syrians shoot, run, shoot, jump, shoot and wrestle.

Remind me of when the Americans accidentally shot down am Iranian passenger jet years ago.

Yes the Americans are very trigger happy at the best of times. It has been said that Lockerbie was a result of Iranians seeking revenge rather than Libya. Though it is still not clear who fired at this plane, and lucky that the pilot was able to avoid a missile. How many airline pilots could do that apart from El-Al pilots?

IIRC it wasn't being trigger happy, it was being reliant on the machines too much. The ship's threat analysis systems marked the plane as a hostile and automatically locked a missile onto it. The operator then effectively has a period where he can hit the 'abort' but they're actually trained not to do so unless there's obvious doubt in their head and in this case... well, there wasn't.

The Patriot systems that they used to protect Israel during the first gulf war are the same. Basically the whole thing is automatic and the operator is there to stop it doing something stupid, not to actually tell it to do things. They shot down an RAF Tornado due to exactly the same issue.

There's a bunch of those same batteries now active in South Korea and Japan. Might want to travel to either one by boat for the forseeable...


Well, let's just say you're well motivated to give it your best shot...

Yes the Iranian airliner did seem a natural mistake, especially as the pilot did not respond to radio calls either.


Not likely. I like to fly and am most likely to onboard enjoying the flight rather than looking up at them.

How many other airlines actually have anti-missile technology fitted to their aircraft.

The American ship picked up an Iranian F14 squawk code from a different jet before it had taken off.
They tired to contact the jet several times, but most of those attempts were on a military frequency that it couldn't receive. The remainder never even mentioned any call signs.
The radar operator told the commander that the jet was diving towards the ship when radar logs showed it was still climbing.

None as far as I am aware. Though El-Al also have a faultless security record.

Fed-Ex seem to be involved with the testing of one system. LINK
El-Al use another LINK

The same Fed-Ex that had this problem?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_planes_bomb_plot

Yep.

So no missiles getting launched at the plane, that could interfere with the bomb on the plane.