General Mcinerny was on Fox yesterday...he has experience and credibility in this arena, as he was responsible for airspace near Russia/Alaska during one of his commands.
He said that the Russians strayed into our airspace many times...and obviously we never shot one down. He mentioned some factors that aren’t being mentioned in the public debate about this. First, it was very important to him that the plane’s heading made it obvious that it was not directed towards a target in Turkey...but instead merely scraping in and out of their airspace. Also, he implied this was a planned/lie in wait affair. It happened so quick, the Turkish pilot had to have been patrolling this finger of airspace, with orders to shoot, no permission needed. Way outside of how nations (that are not at war with each other) traditionally interact in these types of situations.
I too remember KAL 007...seems many (some here) don’t.
Thanks for posting that. I had read about what he had to say, but didn’t think to include it.