@ Cronus
In our hitech world of today, where military sats in their geo stationary orbits around the planet and sophisticated radar heads covering every avaiable square foot of terrain can spot even a mozzie on the loose, with the seas patrolled with nuke subs and sewn with sonoboys that can hear a flatus of a mariner at a distance of 50 miles, how can it be possible for your every day , run of the mill variety type airliner to go into stealth mode for so long. That is what puzzles me most
Probably because the hi res surveillance satellites as used by defence agencies were not operating over this part of the eastern block at the time of the incident and the best images are taken in good daylight.