Does anyone know if civilain airliners have IFF transponders? Obviously the Iranian airliner one of our ships shot down wasn’t ID as a non-combatant.
Every aircraft on an instrument flight plan, which means all airline equipment, is assigned a transponder code by ATC.
Therefore any aircraft can be immediately identified by make, model, flight number or tail number, point of departure, destination, etc.
That is the one most puzzling matter in this story unless it was a case of pure incompetence and negligence on the part of the NATO command in that they did not confirm with ATC what aircraft they were intercepting.
Perhaps they were instructed by higher ups to make no contact with ATC. Most likely.
Without going back and reading the story again, it is my recollection that the aircraft was seen on radar at the time of the incident; therefore the transponder code should have been displayed.
It is also my recollection that dual transponders are required on high altitude aircraft and that lack of a working transponder grounds the aircraft.