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Communications breakdowns led to last month's downing of Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 over Bosnia, according to a Pentagon report. The report says intelligence photos revealed four hours before the plane was hit that Serb SA-6 missile battery had moved into the flyover area. Just minutes before impact, an American U-2 plane detected a brief burst of radar from the battery, revealing its position. But a command plane lacking crucial communications gear was unable to relay the message to O'Grady. Pentagon officials will present the report to Congress tomorrow...
...begun six days before, when his F-16 was targeted by an SA-6 surface-to-air missile fired from a Bosnian-Serb stronghold just south of Bihac. Together with Captain Bob Wright, 33, who was flying another F-16 on his wing, O'Grady was conducting one of the 69,000 sorties that have been flown during Operation Deny Flight to enforce a United Nations-mandated no-fly zone over northern Bosnia...
...location of the missile was the result of a shift in defenses recently undertaken by the Bosnian Serbs that had escaped the notice of NATO intelligence. Because it was launched from directly below, the SA-6 was able to hurtle up on the "blind spot" in the underbelly of the F-16's defensive pod, blasting into O'Grady's aircraft with barely 20 seconds' warning and cutting it in half. "We think this was the first time the Serbs fired an SA-6," said an Air Force official. "They waited until just the right moment, and they ambushed...
...back to the Kearsarge at 175 m.p.h., skimming the treetops in hopes of avoiding Serbian gunners and missileers below. The 87-mile flight was smooth for its first third, when the helicopters entered a shallow valley in the shape of a rice bowl. But suddenly three small, shoulder-fired SA-7 missiles ripped past, followed by "small gunfire hitting the bird," as Corporal Michael Pevear, the other Marine sitting beside O'Grady...
...American F-16 fighter shot down this morning over northern Bosnia near the Bosnian Serb town of Banja Luka. The plane was flying at approximately 20,000 feet on an air patrol mission enforcing the no-fly zone over Bosnian Serb territory when it was hit by a Russian SA-6 surface-to-air missile. Only the pilot was aboard. It is not yet known whether he survived the crash. The Pentagon has not yet released his identity. This is the second time a NATO plane has been shot down by Serb missiles. The first came in April...