However, I believe that the Navy fired the missile(s) by virtue of the "Dog that didn't bark" principle. No response by the military to dozens of incoming reports of a missile shooting down an airliner. Whether real or not, every military plane and ship in the area should have been out there almost immediately to find the boat from which the missile was fired. That it didn't happen indicates that the military almost immediately recogized that it was one of its own missiles.