From the Sydney Morning Herald today
From the Sydney Morning Herald today
"Indonesian fighter jet pilots had "locked on" their weapon systems to an Australian light plane on Wednesday before its pilots decided to comply with the order to land, one of the air force pilots has said.
Indonesian pilot Major Wanda Suriansyah was quoted in news portal Tempo.co as saying the two Sukhoi fighters had engaged their weapons systems and taken aim at the Australians.
"If there had been a command to shoot, I would immediately have shot it down, but thank God the pilot was apparently scared and decided to land the plane in Manado," Major Wanda said.
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The dramatic mid-air chase on Wednesday morning came after radars detected a light plane, flown by Australians Richard Wayne Maclean and Graeme Paul Jacklin, in Indonesian air space without papers or clearance to be there.
They were delivering the plane to its new owner in the Philippines.
Major Wanda said the Sukhoi fighters had scrambled from Makassar in south Sulawesi, before escorting the Australian plane for four hours as it flew over Kupang and Ambon.
He said the first request to land was made as the Beechworth aircraft was over Ambon.
"But some Australians are stubborn so they ignored the request," he said.
Eventually the plane was forced to land in the Sam Ratulangi airport in Manado. The air force base commander, Hesly Paath, also alleged that the Australians originally ignored orders to stop...."
This is how it is meant to work.
Military radar is meant to pick up un-identified unauthorised aircraft and scramble aircraft to intercept, and identify.
Military radar is designed to pick up aircraft flying dark without transponders. That's the whole point.
Why didn't the military radar of Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, India, the USA at D Garcia and Australia not pick up, not react, not intercept a massive target the size of MH370 but they did with a light aircraft.
It beggars belief.
One or perhaps all of these countries must have seen it. They just aren't about to tell us. The question is why?