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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site rabbit.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!allegra!alice!rabbit!wolit
From: wolit@rabbit.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: KAL007
Message-ID: <1939@rabbit.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Sep-83 16:14:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: rabbit.1939
Posted: Thu Sep 15 16:14:48 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 16-Sep-83 05:54:48 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 33

It would help matters if those who had nothing to contribute other
than jingoistic innuendo -- "butchers," "give 'em so windex," "alleged
pilot," etc. -- would shut up, so that those of us interested in
aviation could learn from others who are similarly interested and
knowledgeable.  I thought that was what this network was for.

It now turns out that a Russian expert in State Department's Foreign 
Service office has contradicted the official U.S. translation of the
conversation between the Soviet interceptors and their ground
controllers.  The word that was earlier translated as "IFF"
(Identification, Friend or Foe) is actually a common word meaning
"inquiry."  (The official line is now that this word is used by Soviet
pilots to refer to IFF equipment, as well as in its broader sense.)
In other words, rather than saying that the intruder (i.e., KAL007)
was not responding to military hardware (as only another Soviet
military plane would), he may have been saying that the Korean pilot
wasn't responding to the normal inquiries -- radio, light signals,
wing-rocking, etc. -- that are internationally accepted steps in an
interception.  (This is the second ambiguity that has turned up so far
in the official U.S. transcript.  Earlier, the Administration admitted
that the transcript showed that the Soviets fired warning cannon
rounds, which had initially been denied.)

As to the "unmistakeable silhouette" of a Boeing 747:  The USAF does
use an essentially unmodified (externally) version of the plane --
termed an E-4 -- in a Command, Control, and Communication role.
(It would be used a a flying national command post in wartime.)
Such a high-value target must certainly be recognized by a Soviet
fighter pilot as a potentially military aircraft -- as must virtually
all but the smallest pleasure craft.  (After all, it was a Cessna 402
that bombed the airport at Managua last week.)

	Jan Wolitzky, BTL Murray Hill, rabbit!wolit