From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 10:03:59 +0800
To: Alan Horowitz <angelos@gradin.cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: Re: FLT 800: From the Rumor Mill...But It Makes Sense.. (fwd)
Message-ID: <199609021945.MAA05331@dns2.noc.best.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 09:04 PM 9/1/96 -0400, Alan Horowitz wrote:
> The Aegis ship in the Gulf wzs not in an exercise. It was in a war zone.
>
> If my memory serves, the Iranian jetliner had its squawker turned off, or 
> broken.

Your memory does not serve:  The computers record of the events was:

Computer tells crew:  Civilian jetliner on radar.

Crew expecting an attack by jetfighters, tell computer to shoot it down.

Computer does not put up a bunch of dialogs saying:  "Hey, I think this
is a CIVILIAN airliner, did you get that CIVILIAN airliner, are you quite
sure you want it shot down?  Instead it just shoots it down.

Human error by the American military.  Possibly poor user interface on
the computer.  Possibly indifference to civilian lives by the American
military.


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