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.
I meant to add that many years ago a friend of mine who worked in the FAA system as a controller, told me that they saw a lot of activity on radar that they were forbidden from even mentioning that they had seen anything.
So it seems certain in this case that the military was operating with no transponders and no contact with civilian traffic controllers.
However, the military does coordinate traffic with ATC under normal circumstances so it seems that it would have been easy for some military facility to contact ATC with a vague request like “We show a target at XXXX that we don’t understand....do you have any information on it?”
But again some brilliant military brass probably gave them strict orders to operate in silence.
Thanks. I would agree civilians were kept out of it leading to the intercepion and downing of the wrong craft. We had an aircraft controller on our ship. I’m curious if naval vessels can ID civilian air traffic transponders.
“Perhaps they were instructed by higher ups to make no contact with ATC. Most likely.”
Yes, I think so too. It wasn’t the intercepting NATO fighters that shot the plane, it was the French who were on the assassination mission. So, they were probably trying to pull this off without leaving any trace of their own involvement, which may have led to them cutting some corners.