Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
Seven of those attempts were on UHF (243.0 MHz), which the Iran Air couldn't receive as it didn't have UHF, and three were on VHF (121.5 MHz), which IR655 did receive but disregarded because it cited an unknown aircraft flying with a 50 kt speed difference (GS vs TAS) and failed to quote IR655's Mode A squawk, which would have unambiguously identified it.
Or, to paraphrase, they didn't know what they were doing. "Attempts" that are impossible to receive don't really count, do they ?
The crew also stated they had no way of knowing it was a civilian airliner, despite it being in a civilian ait corridor, Amber 59. Now in every US warship at the time the quartermaster carried the current Official Airline Guide (OAG), principally to arrange tickets for crew members. The flights from Bandar Abbas to Dubal were straightforwardly listed in there. So the information of the flight time and route of the aircraft was all there on board their ship. Just nobody had thought to look.
I hope nowadays someone on board has the web address for Flight Radar 24.