Oopsie…

Seems the Syrians popped a Russian IL-20-A Coot on Monday. Now what’s ‘interesting’ is that the Russians claim the Coot was 22nm off the coast, which is outside the range of all but the RUSSIAN supplied anti-air systems…

Full article, HERE. And another take, HERE.

Here’s a quick graphic, the X marks 22nm off Latakia, where the attacks were taking place. Now what is interesting, is that the aircraft was supposedly headed to Khmeimim Airbase, which is just outside Jableh, SE of Latakia.

While they are trying to blame the Israelis for not giving them enough notice to evacuate the area, I’d be willing to bet that the Coot (which is an ELINT bird), HERE, was probably collecting on the Israelis and was actually well inside 22nm, so…

The Russians effectively shot themselves down. I will say a prayer for the families of the crew, they didn’t deserve to die doing their jobs, but they got caught out when the Syrians fired indiscriminately, hoping to hit the Israelis with the proverbial ‘golden BB’.

Comments

Oopsie… — 11 Comments

  1. Gee, another Russian design that looks suspiciously like an American product. Like a P-3 with a DC-7 nose.

    As to the shooting down, it does seem to be a case of Hunting Accident Syndrome. (Wherein one bubba blows another bubba away because there’s a buck standing behind now-dead bubba.) Wonder if the UN is going to require non-combat aircraft to be painted day-glo orange?

  2. “Our plane wasn’t in your space, and besides, it’s the Israelis’ fault.”

    Reminds me of the story about the old rabbi who was an avid reader of the Cossack anti-semitic newspaper, which blamed the Jews for everything. Poor harvest? Blame the Jews. Cholera breaks out? The Jews? The moon falls out of the sky? IT’S THOSE DIRTY JEWS!!!!
    His friend asked the rabbi why he read those papers which denounced the Jews for everything.
    “I like to read about how powerful we are,” was his reply.

    So, today on Yom Kippur, the Cossacks wish to add the shooting down of the plane, to the list of things the people of Eretz Yisrael must ask God to forgive? I believe this burden might weigh a bit lighter than some others.

    To all, I greet you this Day of atonement with “Shanah tovah u’metuka” which (I truly hope) means “Have a good year, and sweet.”

  3. A Kill is a Kill…except this time everybody paints a coot on their weps.

  4. “Golden BB” is that one vulnerable spot that you need to essentially roll boxcars, 3 times in sequence, to hit – but if you hit there with anything you get kills on all the subsystems, or a K-kill. This was more like the “spray and pray” approach of shoot everything, in hope of a hit, and if the fuselage is airliner instead of ground attack heritage, big ouch.

    Have the same sentiment to their crews. “Friendly” fire is always the worst.

  5. Gerry/LL- OH so true… sigh

    WSF- Point.

    Beans- Yep, IL-38 and P-3 are ‘remarkably’ similar…

    Pat- Excellent point!

    AFCM- Yeah, there is that…

    PK- We always said it was that ‘one’ random round, that despite all odds, managed to bring you down, one way or the other.

  6. Wouldn’t it have been fun to be a fly on the wall when Vladimir was informed about that shoot-down…

    Wonder how that phone call to Bashar went…

  7. Hey Old NFO;

    Well that is what Russians do, they blame the west for anything…Remember the KAL 007 shoot, the Russians blamed the Americans until the Americans released the tapes of the Mig zeroing on the 747 and describing the 747 down to the Korean logo.

  8. Suz- Probably VERY interesting…

    Bob- Yep, and remember how the GCI controller told him TWICE to shoot it down quick, so it didn’t land in international waters?