Probably tried to keep this away from the public to prevent:
1: huge US embarassment
2: US paying damages to the survivors of the attack because they will almost certainly get lung cancer or worse

But the area controller was in error also... only AFTER they ID-ed and shot the vehicle he discovers that in said position there could be friendly vehicles.

ozzy72 wrote on Feb 7^th, 2007 at 2:20am:

I thought it was an open door policy.

my only question about the orange markings, with it being widely known anyway, isn't it easy for the enemy to just put it on their armor and vehicles? Or is there a specific setup thats not widely known?

Woodlouse2002 wrote on Feb 7^th, 2007 at 10:44am:


I think there would be a couple of hours or days in between there where the enemy could take advantage of the confusion.  I've not read the transcript but put yourself in a theoretical scenario in the pilot's shoes.  You're called in to fly CAS for friendlies under fire.  You come on scene and ID your target.  You note the markings.  You radio down and get confirmation that it is your target.

Why wouldn't you fire?  Not firing could mean the enemy can engage friendlies.

thing is chris, these wern't actually their targets.
From what I can tell they were returning from a mission and happend to see these guys. They wanted to destroy them before RTB. Sadly the problems them started because the guys handling battlefield watch or whatever you call it, told the pilots there were no friendlies in the area, either through incorrect position communications or poor communication between armies.
Personally this is why I am not a big fan of non pre-mission target engagement, accidents like this happen.
I cant really fault the pilots, they went through what appeared to be proper procedure, and were given assurances there were no friendlies in the area. After this you've really only got seconds to react.

Hagar wrote on Feb 7^th, 2007 at 12:25pm:

I've seen all sorts of burocratic reasons for something like this that have nothing to do with cover-up.  Perhaps the earlier parts of the mission were classified and therefore the entire tape had to be considered classified?  Perhaps one month prior a mission the pilot flew was classified therefore the tape machine was "contaminated" and every tape needed to be considered classified.  Heck, if I take a music CD in to the area where I work that CD automatically is considered contaminated and needs to be shredded.  There are lots of silly rules regarding classification any one of which could kick off some burocratic nightmare that results in something like this.

"We're in jail dude". Well, if they go then make sure the controller(s) who advised them there were no friendlies in the area joins them...