[Lou L]

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Any air defense unit that shot the plane down would get a lot of grief.
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I would think that after 9/11, while it would be tragic, the shooting down of an unidentified, non-responding aircraft would certainly be understandable.

[Zhang Fei]

I would think that after 9/11, while it would be tragic, the shooting down of an unidentified, non-responding aircraft would certainly be understandable.

A year after 9/11, sure. 13 years after 9/11, in an environment where unidentified aircraft are the rule rather than the exception, because of an aversion to paperwork combined with glacial bureaucratic processes even if the paperwork is filed?

[ctdonath2]

I recall a comparable incident some years back when an Iranian passenger plane was shot down. IIRC, the justification amounted to “sorry, but sucks to look like something you know we’d like to shoot down.” Details escape me; surely a K.o.O.K.S member can refresh my memory.