Word: sued
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Su-15 pilot sends out an IFF (Identification: Friend or Foe) radio signal to Flight 007 to see if it is a friendly Soviet plane. But the Su-15's IFF frequency can be picked up only by Soviet aircraft. The jumbo hums westward into the darkness, unaware that it is being interrogated...
...while fast for a commercial airplane, is no match for the supersonic Su-15. The jumbo's typical cruising speed is 540 m.p.h.; the Soviet fighter is capable of speeds in excess of 1,400 m.p.h. Pilot 805 correctly assumes he will not need to use his afterburner (a device that sprays fuel into a jet's hot exhaust, giving it a sudden burst of speed) in order to catch up to the lumbering jetliner...
...pilot of the Su-15 decides (or is told by ground control) that he needs to get closer to the target. He accelerates and gets within a little more than a mile of the jumbo jet, which remains oblivious to the danger. Simultaneously, he turns off his weapons' lock-on system so that he can reposition it properly later, when he is ready to fire. Once again, he reports to the ground that 007's strobe light is blinking...
...Narita airport to climb from an altitude of 33,000 ft. to 35,000 ft., and a climb speed is slower than a cruise speed. However, seconds later, Pilot 805 reports that the airliner is at an altitude of 10,000 km (33,000 ft.), indicating that either the Su-15's instruments were in error or 007 had not yet started its ascent...
...result of 007's reduced speed, or his own miscalculation, Pilot 805 begins to overshoot the jetliner. Ground control apparently orders the Su-15 to remain behind it. The pilot is forced to drop back, grumbling at the lateness of the command. "It should have been earlier," he complains. "How can I chase it? I'm already abeam of the target . . . Now I have to fall back from the target." He confirms the airliner's position: 70° to his left...