New Information on KAL Jet

Despite the tone of the Sara Fritz story about the Soviets destroying the KAL jet (Part I, 13 Jan.), President Reagan was correct in his statement that “There is no way a pilot could mistake this for anything other than a civilian airliner.” The Soviets shot down a civilian airliner deliberately without knowing what they were shooting at due to their intercept procedures which do not require positive identification of the target before firing as do the procedures of defense units of NATO countries.

The Soviets claimed that the KAL 747 was mistaken for a USAF RC-135, a military version of the Boeing 707 which was in common use throughout the world and easily identifiable. When the Soviets did not require their interceptor pilot to obtain a positive identification, they deliberately shot down an unarmed civilian aircraft. Any excuses about flying height or visibility are not acceptable as the pilot reported seeing the KAL navigation lights. If he could see the lights from missile firing distance, or at any distance, the visibility was excellent and he could have closed and made a positive identification that the aircraft was a Korean 747 and not a USAF RC-135. For those of you who may question a pilot’s ability to make such an identification at night under any conditions, let me state that I have done so. Following Air Force procedures in training exercises in the U.S. I have intercepted both 707s and B-47s under difficult weather conditions, day and night, and been able to report not only the aircraft type but the aircraft number as well.

Soviet actions were deliberate and criminal.

CLAY TICE JR.

Colonel, USAF (Ret.)

Palm Desert