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Originally Posted by blankall
C'mon...
This is such a distortion of the truth. The Vincennes could not identify the aircraft as either civilian or military and attempted communication on both frequencies. The civilian plane could not pick up the military communications. They did not think that the civilian communications were directed at them and carried on towards the warship, which is what made the Vicennes think the plan was attacking them. Flight 655 was shot down at a distance that it could not be identified and was coming in at a lower than normal altitude. At no point did the US confirm it was a civilian plane. Were they horribly reckless, because it could (and was) a civilian plane? of course.
Can you also not see the difference in the way the governments are dealing with this. The USA initially made a statement stating they'd shot down a military aircraft, but then revoked that statement and admitted hitting the civilian craft....within a few hours.
Iran denied everything until they got caught red handed on video. Then they went around arresting their own civilians for filming the incident.
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The Vinncennes received the mode 3 Comair response from the airliner, identifying it as civilian, they reported to the captain it could be an airliner, they attempted to contact the plane because their electronics had told them it was civilian.