Apologies for my failure to read the thread as it has developed - I may be raising things that have already been said...
My first impressions:
I think there is more to this than is being reported - There are many procedures and basic operating expectations/requirements that have either been completely neglected and/or ignored for this to have happend. That being said, whilst I don't discount the possibility that someone handed a complete idiot the keys to one of the worlds most highly capable SAM systems without even questioning the Vodka on his breath before signing off, I have a hard time believing that a crew who's sole job is to operate a Surface to Air Missile system that shoots down aircraft would have failed at even the most basic of aircraft recognition checks and then go on to confirm the launch without requesting an IDENT for confirmation... especially in such a busy airspace by an aircraft that was flying 2000ft into the commercial operations lanes....
They should have had PLENTY if procedures had been followed by the moron with the itchy trigger finger with the SAM system... The transponder would have been set to say, 1200 (normal operations civillian flight) and broadcasting to all threat assessment systems (which this SAM system would have as part of its built ins) and even if there had been any confusion, question or failure of this intial identification of the aircraft in question, common sense and weapons systems procedures of operation 101 would logically ask for a confirmation of target before launch if there was any doubt at all about what they were about to shoot down.
A basic IDENT request by whoever was in charge of overseeing the battlefield and the airspace overhead would have again stopped this. And IDENT is where the 777 crew would be asked to identify as "FRIEND OR FOE" by sqawking their response confirmation ID back... and its almost inconcievable to even the most basic of reasoning that they have failed to do this... another failsafe completely ignored or not even conidered...
So those two basic checks on their own should have stopped this happening... then there is the question of why someone who was operating a surface to air missile system of that level of capability even passed his basic aircraft recognition test before he was handed the keys... *advertiser censored*... its pretty easy to break this down and see why this is pretty important... you operate a surface to air missile system... your sole job and requirement is to shoot down aircraft... It probably stands to reason that you brush up on your ID skills so you know what your aiming at.... and learn to count to at least 4... because it would have been clearly visable to anyone who had been to Spec Savers that the contrails of a 777 are developing from two engines, unlike the Antonov they are claiming, which has 4 engines.
Then there was the altitude they were flying at... 2000ft above the hard deck for commercial airliners (so they were in the approved safe zone) and crusing at a constand speed with no directional changes... and whilst I bet the muppet who pressed the big red button and took on the burden of ending 240 or so innocent human lives is probably sitting there this evening saying to himself "*advertiser censored*... shoulda gone to Spec Savers!", its all a bit suspect to me that without even going into the detailed safe engagement procedures that should/MUST be followed, one could now see how unlikely, almost impossible an accidental shoot down would be.
The MAL crew and passengers would have had zero warning without the aforementioned procedures and comminications. They would have been watching their in flight movie on one of those ****** old back of headrest screens and chowing down a second round of Chicken Satay one second and then gone the next... the exposive decompression of the cabin at that altitude would have sucked the air from their lungs and knocked em out cold in less than half a second.... there are no threat warning systems fitted to most commercial airliners...
