Friendly Fire, F-14A v. RF-4
A friend forwarded an email to me this morning regarding a VF-74 F-14A 'bagging' a USAF RF-4 over the Med in September 1987. Due to copyright legalities I decided not to cut-n-paste.
The RF-4's mission was to find Saratoga and attempt to fly over her and get pictures without being detected.
The Phantom crew joins up on a tanker and notices the F-14 on his wing waiting its turn, (which didn't make sense since we don't accept fuel the same way as Air Force a/c do)...Anyway the F-4 tanks and departs the tanker. The Phantom crew notices the Tomcat following them for a period of time and then break off.
The F-4's AN/ALQ-125 broke so they apparently knew the TACAN freq. on Sara. So using that freq. and back tracking where they lost the F-14 they begin a search for Sara when all of a sudden a massive explosion engulfs the jet. The entire eppenage is on fire and both pilot and wso egress from the Phantom. The crew is picked up in the med by a Navy helo.
Later, Sara's Skipper debriefs the Phantom crew and asks if they know what happened? The Phantom crew believed they were involved in a midair with the Tomcat. The Skipper informs them they were actually shot down by the Tomcat.
Allegedly, the JO piloting the Tomcat, who is assigned to the exercise is for some reason flying live ordnance. How he is unaware he's flying with AIM-9's and not a CATM-9 I don't get. You guys always seemed to know what you were flying with...Anyway, the first missle is a hung store and doesn't fire. The second comes off the LAU-7 without a problem hitting the Phantom.
Now what I don't get is the Tomcat pilot had VID'd the Phantom. On the HUD the author mentions how the TCS records the ZR tailcode and that he's within 2500 feet of the Phantom. How do you not know your shooting a friendly?
So, any truth to this? This is before my time and not something I would've been on the 'need to know' list for. Shnug or HJ? Maybe you guys have seen or heard this?