[Poohbah]

First even at 8 miles/min. more than enough time to get a good look. But the identifying aircraft were not doing that speed. More like 150-200 Kt.

The Mystere drivers were going much faster than that.

And what flag the ship flies is the last thing you look at when “rigging a ship”

The US Navy maritime patrol community is better-trained at this thing than Israeli fast-movers are.

FOI P-3s when on station fly at 200 ft. 200 Kts

Mysteres scrambled on a panic call fly 500 knots and 1,000 feet.

You look at the ship construction and configuration. And then see if that matches the name and flag that should go to it.

Sure.

Do that in a single-seat fast-mover under wartime conditions. Do it reliably, while knowing that getting too low and slow next to a hostile ship is a great way to get shot down.

So even if it hadn’t been identified by a flying boxcar earlier.

And you're going to tell me that there's never been a breakdown in communications between a maritime patrol outfit, the Israeli Army, and a bunch of fast-movers?

And the first attacking aircraft didn’t get a good look before it started it’s run. The following flights have plenty of time to get a good look.

After the damn ship's on fire?

One thing is for sure! The attack was no accident!

OK. Please tell that to the crew of the USCGC Point Welcome (attacked by the USAF off Vietnam, 1966) and the crew of the USS Nautilus (attacked by US Army Air Force bombers during the Battle of Midway, 1942).

[SJackson]

You might find this article, Pilot who bombed 'Liberty' talks to 'Post, interesting, particularly as relates to the "identification" process, particularly This ship positively did not have any symbol or flag that I could see. What I was concerned with was that it was not one of ours. I looked for the symbol of our navy, which was a large white cross on its deck. This was not there, so it wasn't one of ours... I checked what I had to check [i.e. that it was a military ship and not one of ours] and pulled the trigger,