Iranian Airbus avoids F15 - injured passengers
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?
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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"
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.
Last edited by Easy Street; 26th Jul 2020 at 14:16.
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.
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.
Is it a fact that TCAS was annunciated or are some just speculating on the role it might have played?
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 ...
Other explanations for the abrupt pushover are available. Like a windscreen full of F-15 ...
When we do learn of the question about TCAS, only then might we better understand if the rules of engagement were violated.