Volker Hetzer wrote:

:Fred J. McCall wrote:
: Volker Hetzer wrote:
:
: :What did they mistake that airliner for anyway? A strategic bomber or what?
: :And which of the enemies they were engaged with had bombers made by airbus?
:
: If you don't know this then you don't know anything about the
: incident. It is also clear that you don't know anything about radar.
:
: The radar paint is not marked 'Airbus'.
:
:I know that. I also did know someone working at a radar point in east germany.
:And echoes do differ. Maybe not enough to tell an f14 from an f18 but a
:big plane ought to have stood out.

Nope. They're both just a dot.

: The transponder block is supposed to tell you what is going on. It is
: based on what the transponder on the aircraft does in response to the
: radar paint.
:
:Right. And did the airbus' transponder work?

Yes, but that doesn't mean anything, as I explained in the part you
snipped. A military aircraft can look identical to a civilian
aircraft on transponder, as well.

: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.

--
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to
live in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Dryden