From my book:
30. Gulf War 1 or Saddam Hussein, my part in his downfall.
a snippet:
As we approached the target of Sadam’s missile attack, Dhahran (now called Ad Damman to avoid confusion with a city of the same name in the west of Saudi Arabia) the Scud missiles arrived en masse. The US response was immediate and effective and several Patriot missiles were launched in defence. Sadly for us we presented a larger and vulnerable target. Of course, all other military aircraft possessed a defence against this form of ‘blue on blue’ in the form of IFF (Identification Friend or Foe). Though the VC10 was equipped with IFF, our 1960s equipment did not contain the all important Mode 4, necessary to alert the automatic tracking mechanism of a Patriot missile that we were indeed friendly. Hence we presented a nice fat juicy target and at least one of these huge missiles locked on to our aeroplane.
We watched one of these huge missiles spiralling up towards us, its rear end emitting a red hot plume. We had minutes to live! My copilot froze, but a frantic radio call from me to the American air traffic control seem to do the trick. Some 1000 or so feet below us the deadly missile exploded in mid air. We felt nothing and expelled a sigh of relief. Yet another reason that day to fill in our laundry list!