"Angelos D. Keromytis" <angelos@gradin.cis.upenn.edu> writes:

This has happened before; an Aegis ship in the Persian Gulf shot down an Iranian Airlines (or whatever it's called) aircraft; i'm not sure how many died in that incident (i think about 70 - can very well be wrong). The US just "apologized" for the mistake AFAIK. - -Angelos

Well, not quite the same situation. IIRC, the Iranian aircraft refused to respond to challenges. The captain of the Vincennes added that to the info that the Aegis system was giving him, and decided the aircraft was a threat. Turn a key, push a button, and so long, Airbus. (There was also some discussion about whether the Airbus had military IFF gear aboard that may have led the captain to think it was a warplane, but I don't remember if anything came of it.) The Iranian Airbus was also flying out of what was essentially "hostile" airspace. Despite the massive number of "terrorists" who live here -- at least according to the popular press -- I don't think the Navy has taken the step of declaring CONUS to be a hostile territory. :-) Feel free to correct my memory if I'm wrong.