It happened on Reagan's watch.
However, the USS Vincennes has a defense the Ukrainian separatists lack. The sailors on board the Vincennes, in the midst of duking it out with the muzzies in the Gulf, believed they were under attack by a fighter armed with Exocet missiles. Not long before, the USS Stark lost 37 as a result of a mistaken missile attack by an Iraqi fighter (Saddam was our ally then, LOL!).
However, these Ukrainian separatists were not in danger themselves. They were simply looking to shoot down yet another Ukrainian government plane. They f'd-up, as they realized about forty minutes later. No parachuting government pilots to be captured. Just hundreds of dead bodies with foreign passports!
 Control console of Buk-M2E missile system |
Wow! That thing looks complicated! It needs an iOS GUI makeover. Gaze at the targets on the screen. Pick one. Double-tap. Whoosh! It's gone!
Whether you're sitting in front of an Aegis or a Buk, the problem is similar. If your finger is itchy, everything flying looks like a target. If your own life isn't in danger, you need to verify, not trust.
Of course, even that is not enough. Which brings us to KAL 007. Here's Lieutenant Gennadi Osipovich's recollection:
"I saw two rows of windows and knew that this was a Boeing," he said. "I knew this was a civilian plane. But for me this meant nothing. It is easy to turn a civilian type of plane into one for military use."Minutes later, he fired two air-to-air missiles, sending Korean Air Lines Flight 007 crashing into the sea, killing 269 people and causing what President Boris N. Yeltsin has called the greatest tragedy of the cold war.