> The Airbus had turned off civilian squawk and was in a dive directly at the Vincennes — hardly what civilian airliners are supposed to do.
Vs the Navy's report:
FORMAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING
THE DOWNING OF IRAN AIR FLIGHT 655 ON 3 JULY 1988
https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/VINCENNES%20...
> Iran Air Flight 655 took off on runway 21 (heading
210 degrees true), was directed by the Bandar Abbas Tower to
squawk IFF mode III code 6760, and began a normal climb out to
assigned altitude of 14,000 feet for the flight, which lasted a
total of 7 minutes before the plane was hit by the missiles from
USS VINCENNES. The pilot remained within the Amber 59 air
corridor (20 miles wide, 10 miles each side of centerline), made
a routine position report to Bandar Abbas departure control at
approximately 0654Z, and was ascending through 12,000 feet at a
speed of approximately 380 kts at the time of making his report.
> 5. ($) At approximately 0654Z, the missiles fired from USS
VINCENNES impacted the aircraft at an altitude of 13,500 feet,
Basically, both the data recovered from Vincennes and the actual timeline of events precludes '655 having descended. This accident is a (the?) textbook case of "scenario fulfillment" where people under pressure have a warped vision of reality matching a scenario they've seen in training.