“I believe American plans have a switch they can pull to signal a hijacking.”
It’s a transponder code.
“Certainly, nobody would just shoot a civilian plane down without justification”
Soviets did when they shot down the Korean Airliner.
“I don’t believe anybody shot this one down. It’s either a failed hijacking, a spectacular mistake, or a mechanical problem.”
Agree with you 100%.
The Soviets made a severe (and paranoid) mistake with the Korean airliner. They thought it was an American recognizance plane called Cobra Ball, which flew out of Kiska, the last island in the Aleutians. From the angle of their radar the two images crossed. When they separated the Soviets misidentified 007 as Cobra Ball. KAL 007 was off course, having experienced a zero crossing error or an initial set-point error and they passed over a Soviet airbase. It was chased from the rear and the fighter, overextended, fired a missile at extreme range. He never had a visual and could not ID the target as a 747 instead of a 707. The missile flew up an engine and the plane fell several miles while breaking apart. It was a nightmare for the Soviets. If the Chinese did shoot it down, it would be almost impossible to keep it secret, given the monitoring in the area. Also, I think the probable crash site is well outside any probable danger zone.