[Lower Deck]

I have it on good authority that the Navy was in fact test firing in that area at that time.

Good authority from whom? Pierre Salinger? In order to accept that one would have to presume that the Navy was so God awfully stupid as to shoot missiles into one of the most heavily trafficked air corridor in the entire world. What possible reason would they have had to do that?

[UCANSEE2]

In order to accept that one would have to presume that the Navy was so God awfully stupid as to shoot missiles into one of the most heavily trafficked air corridor in the entire world. What possible reason would they have had to do that?

Well... the whole point of that 'exercise' was to prove that they could shoot down a 'target' in a crowded air corridor. It wasn't JUST the US NAVY that was involved in the exercise either.

They tried to destroy the missile before it hit the plane, but were too late. The missile detonated just prior to hitting the plane.

[G Larry]

Source: Active Duty Navy - verbal

Was supposed to have been an inert round.
Propulsion w no HE.

I’m a former 463 from the days of SAC, and insisted there was no way those live nukes could have made it from N. Dakota to Barksdale, unnoticed....but they did.

Much has changed from the days of Military discipline.

[Alberta's Child]

The story as I understand it is that the missile test involved an advanced missile that was designed to track down its target using the target aircraft's radio transmissions, not its heat signature. This would explain why it's actually necessary to test the effectiveness of the weapon close to a major metropolitan area where there is a lot of background "radio noise" that would have to be overcome in order for the weapon to work effectively.