> A recent FAA notice warned of the potential of misidentification of civilian aircraft over eastern Ukraine, but surely nobody thought they would shoot a civilian aircraft out of the sky.
Yes, but without any direct communication, no organized Air Traffic Control, and without tracking satellites, it seems very easy for ground troops to mistake a civilian transport with a military transport.
Seems ludicrous for anyone to attempt to fly over Ukraine right now.
Re:Malaysia B772 has crashed near Donetsk
by TheAnimus on Thursday July 17, 2014 @01:38PM
(#8048959)
>Yes, but without any direct communication, no organized Air Traffic Control, and without tracking satellites, it seems very easy for ground troops to mistake a civilian transport with a military transport.
Except for the transponder...
Which can be spoofed.
not to mention, ground troops in a civ-war-like situation may not have the technology to detect a civilian aircraft's transponder, nor even expect one to be in the area (after all, it's more-or-less a war zone right now).
That being said, touching eastern Ukraine with a 30,000 ft. pole would probably be less than wise at the moment.