[quote=FlyerInHi][quote=ucodegen]
Umm not likely. Because Ukraine has a long range system, they could see where the aircraft really came from as it enter their airspace. Ukraine has systems like our FAA radars that cover a good portion of our airspace.[/quote]
As allan posted, the Ukrainians and the Russians have the capability. so it’s either.
I was reading some European news outlets and they are less wanting to pin the blame on Russia than our media.
Would Russia be stupid enough to shoot down a plane down over Ukrainian airspace?[/quote]I guess I may have to explain it in simpler terms. Ukraine has a long range FAA style radar as well as the ‘BUK’ system. The two different types of systems can talk to each other. This means that Ukraine, due to being able to ‘join’ the FAA style system’s data with the BUK’s track, would really know where the plane came from. They would also have people trained to ‘recognize’ aircraft by track characteristics (altitude and velocity).
On the other hand, it would not be likely that Russian separatists would have that knowledge. They might be trained to simply ‘push the button’, but would not know how to discriminate one type of target from another. They would also be more likely to ‘lets see what this can do’ with their ‘new toy’. The Russian separatists would also not be able to tie the BUKs unit in with an FAA type source since they don’t control most of Ukraine. I suspect that Russia did give them the system and did some ‘simplistic’ training. I don’t think Russia is stupid enough to actually shoot down a civilian aircraft. Russia would also be able to tie their FAA style system to the BUKs and would know where the aircraft came from. I would also say that Ukraine would not be stupid enough to shoot down a civilian aircraft. As for the separatists, I would say that they might be that stupid (particularly if emboldened by Russia). Imagine the mentality of the southern states racists – add in a BUKs system.. and you have a mess.
