Apparently it's common practice for the US Navy to intercept and Identify commercial aircraft flying within 200 miles of a carrier battle group. They send up a F18 to obtain the rego of the aircraft, this is done from close up.
I was told this by a US Navy F 14 Pilot 3 years ago.
Nice photo of the 707 on the ice. What ever happened to it? I guess the Russkies kept all the Western "technology" and cut the rest up later.