Iranian Airbus avoids F15 - injured passengers

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by tprop

What was the Mahan driver trying to accomplish with his maneuvering?

One would hope that his primary aim was to avoid a collision with the F-15. If so, he appears to have been successful.

[dr dre]

Originally Posted by tprop

I think you missed the point completely. What was the Mahan driver trying to accomplish with his maneuvering?

Who knows, maybe the F-15 got too close and the PIC of the Airbus thought it was necessary? Unless FDR and CVR data is released to the public it’s only speculation.

I’m more interested in why the F-15s were sent to intercept that specific flight on this specific day, which according to all available tracking data was not doing anything differently to the numerous Qatari, Syrian, Lebanese, Iraqi (and probably Iranian as well) flights that transited the exact same route previously and after this incident as well?

[zerograv]

Originally Posted by krismiler

This wouldn't be the first time that a TCAS alert was responded to excessively, however I doubt that a military jet flying over hostile territory would be using its transponder.

Nothing preventing them from putting their transponder ON for a little bit, one dives from above towards the Mahan, and another one climb from below towards Mahan.

They can even stay at a distance of a 1000 meters from Mahan, as stated by the USAF.

It is the rate-of-closure that is going to trigger the TCAS RA.

As you quite rightly say ... "This wouldn't be the first time that a TCAS alert was responded to excessively"

[Easy Street]

How does anyone here know that previous airliners on similar routes haven’t been intercepted and visually identified by US or other coalition aircraft? It would seem to be a sensible thing to do given how easy it would be for the Iranians to occasionally switch in a military reconnaissance or transport sortie under a routine civil flight plan. If (as I suspect) such interceptions are routine then the only difference this time is likely to be the reaction of the Mahan Air pilot. Even a late TCAS RA (if indeed one was provoked) shouldn’t result in injuries if properly flown: worst case ‘g’ range is +0.65 to +1.35; nothing and no-one should be floating around the cabin in that range.

[lomapaseo]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Nobody has disputed the need for visual identification of the aircraft to determine whether it's friend or foe (the US military learned that lesson the hard way).

It should be possible, however, to do that in a manner that doesn't alarm the crew (if it turns out to be a civilian) and/or trigger a TCAS RA.

Several posts so far with TCAS mentioned

Is it a fact that TCAS was annunciated or are some just speculating on the role it might have played?

[DaveReidUK]

Facts are thin on the ground (just the conflicting media reports and the inconclusive ADS-B data). TCAS may or may not have played a role, we don't know yet.

Other explanations for the abrupt pushover are available. Like a windscreen full of F-15 ...

[beardy]

Originally Posted by dr dre

If you’re specifically referring to Syria, then I ask again why weren’t the Qatari and Lebanese Aircraft flying the exact route over the same base intercepted?

How do you know they weren't?

[lomapaseo]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Facts are thin on the ground (just the conflicting media reports and the inconclusive ADS-B data). TCAS may or may not have played a role, we don't know yet.

Other explanations for the abrupt pushover are available. Like a windscreen full of F-15 ...

Agree on possible pilot action. But so far I haven't see a passenger complaint about how close the intercept and of course why wouldn't TCAS have annunciated if the F15 was dangerously close.

When we do learn of the question about TCAS, only then might we better understand if the rules of engagement were violated.