You have to get pretty far into the story to learn it was a G2 – a probably unarmed training aircraft made in Yugoslavia with no pressurized cockpit and top speed of around 440 mph.
The “Rebels” captured 4 G2s in Misrata early on. It’s entirely possible the French just shot down a Rebel plane. Another report says the plane was in the process of landing. It has a very strong landing gear capable of landing on unprepared ground.
In other news, the Illinois National Guard is deploying to Libya. The kinetic energy just rolls on down the hill…
This is one H*** of a mess and the stinkpile just gets worse by the hour.
“Kinetic War”.
These people are blithering Idiots.
There, I said it. No other way to put it, and I’m not changing terms for it like they would.
Blithering Idiots.
Later reports indicate the plane was destroyed by an air to ground missile. It was sitting on the ground. Everyone is still assuming the pilot was a government pilot. That makes no sense – flying an unarmed trainer plane with no defense against attack and no ability to escape would be suicide with no apparent military objective.
I’m guessing the French pilots don’t speak Arabic and your typical Libyan Pilot doesn’t speak French. In theory, pilots are supposed to speak English, but perhaps only enough to talk to a control tower.