Lot of dusting off cobwebs here, but wasn’t it shot down because one of our allies let it slip exactly when and where it was going to be? Somehow I keep thinking the French were involved in us losing that plane, but I can’t remember the whole story.
We may never know but I read that it was pure luck.
And yes, the French and Greeks did leak lots and lots of NATO secrets. This shows the weakness of NATO, you need ‘consensus’ of 28 countries with divergent interests and goals. Can you imagine a US General leaking info to Saddam because “Bush lied about the war for oil” ?? Yet, in NATO it happens because each country has different alliances and goals. Even if Russia attacked them tomorrow a few countries would betray NATO for cheaper Russian gas or whatever.