KW: This is an alrming post from Zerohedge as thousands of New Zealanders are about to embark on their winter trips to visit familly and friends in Europe and the U.K. Many of them will be flying on Emirates, Etihard or Qatar airlines via the Persian Gulf region and now we have the Americans forewarning us of a possible slip up in identifying targets in the air as they have done before either mistakenly or deliberately. As per WW2 stories told. When the Germans fly over the British duck: when the British fly over the Germans duck; when the Americans fly over everyone ducks. Lets hope nothing happens to anyone, especially so as I intend to fly Emirates in the near future myself!!
An Airbus A340-300 of Iranian airline Mahan Air takes off
A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) published by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) late on Thursday said the risk stems from “heightened military activities and increased political tensions” in the area. Airliners operating in the region may also “encounter inadvertent GPS interference and other communications jamming” the warning said. The tension in the proximity of Iran comes as the US deployed additional military assets in the region, including an aircraft carrier strike group and a battery of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles. Washington said it was a response to an undefined threat posed by Iranian forces. The US also withdrew non-essential personnel from diplomatic missions in Iraq. The show of force was reportedly triggered by intelligence provided by Israel.
For some, the FAA warning may bring back the dark memory of the 1988 incident, in which an American guided missile destroyer shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 290 people on board. It happened two months after the US sunk an Iranian frigate and a gunboat in retaliation for an incident a few days earlier, in which a US warship struck an Iranian mine.
Washington said the crew of the USS Vincennes misidentified Iran Air flight 655 for a warplane trying to attack the warship and acted in self-defense. The government rejected accusations that US military service members had acted recklessly, with President George H.W. Bush infamously declaring: “I will never apologize for the United States – I don’t care what the facts are… I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.”
The US did pay compensation to the families of the victims, but never accepted legal liability or apologized to Tehran.
Like that time the US shot down an Iranian airliner with 260 civilians on board?
Source: US Alerts Airliners To “Misidentification” Risk If They Fly Over Persian Gulf | Zero Hedge