Re: KAL007 Coldwar Mystery

In article <ds7emv$g8r$1@oravannahka.helsinki.fi>, Harri Tavaila says...
>
>Fred J. McCall kirjoitti:
>> Volker Hetzer <volker.hetzer@ieee.org> wrote:
>>
>> :Fred J. McCall wrote:
>
>Snip
>
>> :Then they've done what's expected from a civilian airliner, which was the
>> :issue I was responding to.
>>
>> Except for the habit of Iranian aircraft not to answer radio
>> challenges at the time.
>
>Admittedly I do not recall all that much of the incident, but I believe
>that shortly after the killing there was some kind of explanation
>according to which Vincennes mistook radio traffic between Iranian air
>control and a fighter on the tarmac of a nearby air field to be
>associated with the approaching radar echo.

>If so, would Vincennes not have broadcasted their challenge on that
>frequency? And wouldn't such challenge thus have been unheared or at
>least categorized as something directed to other traffic by the crew of
>the Airbus?

The Vincennes broadcast its challenges on two radio frequencies, 121.5 MHz
and 243 MHz. These are frequencies specifically set aside for this sort of
communication, precisely so that there will be no guesswork involved, and
the Airbus should have been monitoring 121.5 MHz.

The cockpit voice recorder from the Airbus was never recovered, so we don't
know whether the warning was recieved and ignored or not recieved at all.
It seems unlikely that anyone would ignore such a warning, whereas it is
fairly common and usually harmless for people to forget about guarding 121.5.
Either way, there was no response to the Vincenne's challenges, on either
frequency.

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