Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Holbein 4352 days ago
What a load of bullcrap... "where told".

If you have a equipment to down planes, it's also your duty to have the proper radar equipment to reliably see what's up there, something that those Rebels did not have. They just stole equipment out of their league, did not know how to handle it and killed 300 innocent travelers.
3 comments
SideburnsOfDoom 4352 days ago
This is right. It has been pointed out that both the Ukrainian government and the rebels now have the capability to do this, the Ukrainian government has had it for a long time, without incident. Because under a government it is operated by soldiers who follow procedures and have access to the data about known civilian flights.
link
runlevel1 4352 days ago
Tragically, the Ukrainian government has had an incident.

On October 4, 2001 they accidentally shot down Siberia Airlines Flight 1812, killing 78.[1]

For what it's worth, I do agree with your sentiment.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia_Airlines_Flight_1812

link
markdown 4352 days ago
Nobody beats the US though. They shot down a huge passenger aircraft and then claimed they thought it was an F-15.
link
SG- 4352 days ago
It gets a bit worse than that I believe, officially to this date the blame is still on Iran for flying an airliner according to it's flight plan and in the commercial traffic corridor.
link
personZ 4352 days ago
They shot down a A300 thinking it was an F14, and they were in a heightened level of alert because they (the USS Vincennes) were in Iranian waters, chasing a small naval boat that they claimed shot at their helicopter.

As an aside, the IR655 tragedy was one of the first were data was available to separate fact from fiction.

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/18/opinion/witness-to-iran-fl...

This tragedy, IR655, and KAL007 are all stark reminders that war is often without discretion.

link
microtonal 4352 days ago
Indeed. Heck, even someone with FlightRadar24 (an app the price of a cup of coffee) could probably deduct what plane that was. Let alone if you have advanced equipment.

As you say, they just got their hands on equipment and had little clue how to handle it. They are also fully responsible for what happened.

link
TausAmmer 4352 days ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbyZYgSXdyw I wonder, they were expecting it to be military/transport plane.

One of: http://i.imgur.com/4XgZCaH.jpg

Just "oh I wonder what this button does"?

link
coder23 4352 days ago
How reliable is that video?
link