Veteran Pilots Stunned at Mix-Up : Aviation: Several stress that with all the safeguards, it would take a series of mistakes for F-15s to down U.S. copters.

A day after Air Force F-15Cs shot down two U.S. helicopters over Iraq, killing 26 people, the proud community of pilots who fly the world’s most sophisticated fighter planes were stunned and dismayed, utterly at a loss to explain how the right stuff went wrong.

“Most of us are saying, ‘Thank God that’s not me,’ because I don’t know how those guys will live with it,” said Lt. Gen. Ted Rees, a longtime F-15 pilot.

As vice commander of the Air Force in Europe until he retired a year and a half ago, Rees flew often with the F-15 squadrons based in Bitburg, Germany, where he said the pilots involved in the accident were based. “I probably know them, which makes it worse,” Rees said. The Pentagon has not yet disclosed where the jets were based.

Rees spoke with admiration of the skill, talent and commitment of the new generation of fighter pilots, calling them “the finest group of young people” he had ever encountered. Air Force pilots are selected because they are at the top of their classes in ability and intelligence and have the confidence and independence to fly their sophisticated machines and make split-second decisions.

Many of their brethren in this elite community are at a loss to explain how the accident could have occurred. Until it gets the results of a thorough investigation, the Pentagon is not judging who is to blame.

But Defense Secretary William J. Perry, speaking on a morning television show Friday, did not hide his opinion that the fault could not lie with equipment alone.

“There were errors,” Perry said. “There were human errors, probably, and there might be process or system errors as well.”

The pilots, who were patrolling the “no fly” zone over northern Iraq, mistakenly identified the helicopters as Soviet-built Hind helicopters, which are flown by Iraq; they tried to communicate with them electronically to determine if they were friend or foe and did not receive a response.

Some F-15 pilots stressed that with the little information released it is impossible to determine where the responsibility lies. “Without looking at films you can’t say it was the pilots’ fault,” said Maj. Curtis Elkin, an F-15 test pilot. “There’s so much that goes on up there.”

Several veteran fliers said that, with all the safeguards in place to prevent “friendly fire” accidents, more than one miscalculation had to be made before such a tragedy could occur.

“A whole series of mistakes had to be made before the final mistake--the visual determination that the helicopters were not friendly--was made,” said Robert Ettinberg, a former vice commander for testing at Edwards Air Force Base in California, who flew 100 missions in Vietnam and later flew F-15s.

Although military officials have said the Blackhawks were equipped with extra fuel pods, which makes them look something like Hinds, “it’s very easy to tell the difference between a Blackhawk and a Hind, even my old eyes can tell the difference,” Rees said. “F-15 pilots worldwide are shaking their heads.”

The radar command plane, with which the fighter pilots were in contact, also should have been able to identify the helicopters as U.S. aircraft. And the helicopters should have been in communication with the command plane, he said.

But no matter what, the pilots will live with the consequences of their decisions for the rest of their lives.

Rees said that he got the first taste of other pilots’ shock over Thursday’s incident over Iraq when he attended a monthly dinner with a group of retired Army and Air Force general officers.

“The Army guys were nice but I felt like I myself had let them down, because I was part of that (F-15) community and I don’t know how that could happen,” Rees said.

In defense of the F-15C pilots, some fellow fighter pilots and analysts argued that a faulty identification was not implausible given the difference between the speeds the helicopters and F-15Cs probably were flying. While the fighter would typically be flying 500 m.p.h., the helicopter would be moving at less than 100 m.p.h.

With that speed differential, a mistaken identification would not be out of the question, especially if the planes were flying above the helicopters at some distance. The F-15C pilots may have avoided getting too close because of the possibility of hostile action.

“We don’t live in a risk-free world in peacetime,” said Justin Chretien, an aviation lawyer in Washington who used to fly F-7s, a fighter that has now largely been retired. “In a hostile environment, when you’re dealing with machines that weigh 40,000 to 50,000 pounds and travel 500 miles an hour, it’s just a matter of time before mistakes will be made that cost lives--it’s tragic, but inevitable. These guys are human.

“Every fighter pilot considers himself to be the best pilot in the service,” Chretien said. “But those who fly F-15s fly specific missions for air superiority. It gives those fighter pilots an extra feeling of confidence. But it’s not cockiness. Most of these guys are pretty quiet.”

F-15s ruled the skies over Iraq during the Gulf War. They were credited for 36 of the 69 U.S. Air Force air-to-air victories.