European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 11, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday july 11, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 3 the Downing of flight 655 pilots cite Gulf radio problems Dubai United Arab emirates a pilots of civilian helicopters say they often have communications problems with . Navy vessels in the persian Gulf and the warships sometimes misjudge Altitude when warning aircraft away. . Navy officials say the guided missile Cruiser Vincennes was unable to communicate with or identify Iran air flight 655 on july 3 before shooting it Down with missiles killing 290 people. Pentagon spokesmen said the Vincennes and a Sec Ond ship sent 12 unanswered warnings to the Airbus a-300 before the Cruiser fired. Iranian officials say the ship should have heard the plane talking to ground control in Iran. Pilots of helicopters chartered by news organizations who Fly much closer to warships than airliners described several incidents in which they did not hear warnings or the Navy did not respond to their Calls. One of them Chris Howard said he and another charter Pilot could not reach a Navy vessel thursday on Channel 16, the Universal emergency frequency. I called and called. And eventually another american ship farther away responded he said. The american destroyer John Hancock locked its weapons on a helicopter chartered by Abc news when the chopper did not respond wednesday to at least two warnings overheard by other pilots nearby. When the helicopter Pilot finally made Contact with the ship he said he had been monitoring the emergency frequency but did not hear the earlier messages. Capt. Massoud Razavi of Iran air told a news con Ference in London that pilots sometimes Are unsure if the Navy messages Are meant for them. Razavi some times flies the Bandar Abbas Dubai route where the Airbus was shot Down. Charter Pilot Peter Byrne also said it is not always Clear which aircraft is being addressed. Byrne said he ignored a warning recently because he was Over the desert five Miles from water and did t realize the Call was for his helicopter until he heard a second warning. He said Navy ships quite often appear to have Trou ble pinpointing Altitude. He reported overhearing a ship warning off a chopper recently that was flying at 500 feet addressing it on the radio As being at 1,500 feet. Pentagon officials said the Vincennes fired at the iranian Jet partly because it was detected about 7,000 feet and descending but also said another Navy ship reported the Jet As did Iran at 12,000 feet or higher. No previous incident led to a Navy attack on a civilian aircraft but pilots said iranian ships have fired on helicopters several times without warning. Byrne said the Navy s prudence might Stem from its familiarity with the flight patterns of news helicopters which have dogged the Fleet since it expanded operations in the Gulfin july 1987. Howard said that there s a communications prob Lem but things Are certainly better than they were a year ago. It was chaos. They were calling on the uhf frequency which civilian aircraft Don t  he added in sympathy with the difficulties of communications officers we Are Only aware of our Side of the  Byrne said pilots often have several radios receiving messages on different frequencies and briefly might turn Down the volume on the general emergency fre Quency to hear a message on another Channel. Iran air officials say the Pilot of flight 655 was Busy communicating with control towers after taking off from Bandar Abbas on the Short flight to Dubai. The Airbus was shot Down minutes later. Mansour Ahmadyar Deputy senior air traffic con troller in Dubai said a hot air inversion layer which is common in the Gulf sometimes interferes with radio and radar reception at Low altitudes. He said the prob Lem is rare at higher altitudes however and would not speculate about what happened july 3. . Officials said the iranian Airliner appeared to be using a military transponder a device that helps radars identify planes As Well As a civilian version. Ahma Dyan said he had no information about the Airbus but had never seen a civilian aircraft with such a trans Ponder on a flight to Dubai. The shooting Down of Iran air flight 655 11 10 am. Chicago time or 10 10a.m. Local time a . Helicopter to fired upon by three iranian gunboats 21 42 am the  Vincennes .frigate Albert b. Montgomery and helicopters fire on the boats sinking two and damaging a third 31 47  Iran air right 655, a Airbus a300 jetliner with 290 people aboard departs from Bandar Abbas headed for Dubai United Arab emirates 41 4% the Vincennes sends the firs of seven warnings on civilian and military distress frequencies 51 51 the aircraft is reportedly at7,800 feet and descending 4-5 Miles off course and is declared hostile 6154 am the Vincennes fires two Standard surface to air missiles and shoots Down what it suspects is an iranian f-14 just South of the iranian Island of Oehm Chicago Tribune graphic by Dennis Odom Dave Jahntz and Nancy Reese source news reports Gulf tragedy probe Narrows officials focus on Iran s f-14s comparing Airbus a300 and f-14 Airbus a300 Wing Span length Overall height Overall maximum take off weight maximum operating Speed 147ft. 1 in. 177ft. Sin. 54 it 6 in. 363,765 ibs. 553 Mph Manama Bahrain a Iran s Small Fleet of f-14 fighters has become one focus of attention in the investigation of Why the . Guided missile Cruiser Vincennes shot Down an iranian Airliner with 290 people aboard. The Pentagon has said transponder signals from the Iran air Airbus a-300 civil Ian aircraft caused the warship to mistake it for an iranian f-14. The american built fighters called the tomcat Are part of a depleted inventory of com Bat ready warplanes that Iran has used sparingly in its War with Iraq. The sweep Wing interceptors were one of the most advanced aircraft in the world when about 80 of them were sold to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi s air Force in the mid-1970s. After nearly eight years of warfare Tehran s f-14 Force was believed to have dwindle to fewer than 10 operational aircraft according to som military analysts . Officials put their num Bers somewhat higher some where in the teens and have said in recent Days that the Force May have been increased by Iran s Success in acquiring badly needed spare parts. The Grumman aircraft saw combat action in 1985. Since then it has been used primarily for its powerful radar systems that can Alert other iranian fighters of the approach of iraqi warplanes. The operational area of the f-14s was around Iran s Harg Island Oil terminal in the Northern persian Gulf and Over the coastal sea lanes used by Tehran s Oil shuttle tankers that carry Oil from Harg to the Larak Island terminal in the Strait of Hormuz. On feb. 9, Iran claimed it shot Down three iraqi jets during a raid on Harg. Days later . Assistant defense Secretary Richard Armitage disclosed in a Pentagon briefing that one iraqi aircraft was shot Down by an f-14, using a .-made, f-14 Wing Span length Overall height Overall maximum take Oft weight maximum operating Speed 64 it. I in. 62 it. 8 in. 16ft. 74,349 ibs. 1,544 Mph 147ft. 11n. Airbus a300 54ft 6 in. Chicago Tribune graphic by John Hancock source Jane s All the world s aircraft sidewinder air to air missile. He said it was the f-14 s first effective use in combat that we be seen in several  . Officials said recently that some of the f-14s had been shifted from the Northern Gulf to the big military base at Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz. It was from Bandar Abbas that the Iran air Airbus took off july 3. . Sources who spoke on condition they not to be named said Friday that the Transfer of f-14s from Bushehry to Bandar Abbas May have been motivated by Iraq s devastating Long Range air strike May 14 on the Larak Island terminal in the Strait where inter National tankers pick up the Oil brought South from Harg. In that raid the world s big Gest ship the sea Wise giant which Iran uses As a storage and Transfer Tanker and four others were damaged. The f-14s were airborne in the skies around the Strait in the Days prior to the Iran air trag Edy but had not taken part in any combat action. As interceptors equipped with air to air missiles they Are not designed for attacks on ships. In addition to the f-14s, Iran has some aging f-4s and f-5s, acquired from the United states during the Shah s regime. Although they watch the aircraft carefully . Warships in the Gulf have not faced Many serious threats from Iran s warplanes. . Commanders have worried most about iraqi pilots particularly in View of the May 17, 1987, attack on the guided missile frigate Stark by an iraqi Mirage in which 37 american seamen died. Washington officially accepted Iraq s explanation that the attack was a mistake. Several subsequent incidents including one in which the . Guided missile Cruiser Richmond k. Turner came within a second of shooting Down three iraqi warplanes led the two governments to work out procedures to protect . Warships from another iraqi attack in the Northern Gulf