I find it implausible that a MiG-29 pilot would engage a Tornado at low level, in the presence of heavy AA & IR guided missiles, with a short-range (& R-60 is very short range) IR-guided missile. I also find it implausible that he’d be able to do so from the front & below (too low!), & that if he did, that he wouldn’t be seen.
The account of Sayood shooting down Waddington & Stewart reads to me like someone trying to imagine a scenario in which he could have shot them down without triggering their RWR, to justify their claim that he shot them down.
Suggestions that despite accounts of him being killed he survived, & went into hiding (why? This was 1991 – Saddam was in power, & a pilot who’d shot down a coalition aircraft would have been a hero, not a fugitive*) & was secretly interviewed, are too fantastic to be taken seriously. The whole story depends, as far as I can see, on the uncorroborated testimony of one person who was not there, & who was not part of the command structure of the fighter force. Secret documents seen only by anonymous insiders? Anyone can make that up.
On the other side, we have eye witnesses who speak publicly, & the accounts of crash investigators, supported by photographs of the wreckage & a data recorder.
Any unbiased person has to conclude that the balance of probabilities is heavily in favour of the RAF account.
The fact that you or anyone else find it “implausible” does not mean it didn’t happened. Surprised of the R-60 used? Well, as you know that’s why the MiG-29s has an IRST, to supplement the radar in case of jamming or improper conditions ( like very low altitude) for it’s use ! Remember how many AIM-7s flew into the ground when launched by F-15s at very low level? Or maybe indeed Sayood didn’t wanted to spook his pray, is that so hard to consider? Again, i can’t read russian , but i THINK i can make out that Sayood fired the R-60 from 500m away from the Tornado. Would that Tornado crew be the very first crew in the history of aerial warfare that was surprised and shot down by an unseen (by them) opponent? Ok so they were hit near the cockpit , well does an IR AAM always have to hit hit the engine ? The thing snakes and turns, and the proximity fuse can detonate it anywhere near the airframe, agree?
AS for the bit about Sayood hiding, well duh, no aviation researcher could even talk to him before 2003, right ? He was probably still an active pilot in IrAF, and remember, back then it was kosher to denigrate and deride anything iraqi, not to mention the likelihood of the iraqi regime letting his pilots give interviews to foreign researchers! He went into hiding AFTER the liberating invasion courtesy of USA, and it was AFTER the invasion that some authors started trying to get the iraqi side of the story, thinking all the suddenly available sources (pilots , documents etc.) would be a blessing. But unfortunately the iranian assassination campaign made that very hard.
Anyway, i don’t want to convince your of anything, believe what you wish, as i said, i’m happy to just learn the truth. And this truth is what some very few unbiased researchers are trying to find out , just for the sake of the truth ( by the way , one of these researchers i talk about seems to have a rather not very flattering view of soviet hardware or the russians in general anyway, so it’s not even like he’s trying to make them look good!).
To me the things are clear: previously top secret iraqi documents unknown in the west mention 4 to 6 kills out of 45 or so total shot-downs, they are extensively researched and matched perfectly with known “coalition” losses and places, some of the pilots and members of IrAF who took part in the action are givings details, what else do you want ? Oh, you want the americans ( or the british military in this case) to come and write it down black on white that yes this aircraft and this aircraft was indeed shot down by a MiG, we’re not THAT invincible , the iraqis are not THAT useless, yes we admit , we did lost some aircraft to iraqi interceptors, so that you are ready to believe it? It ain’t going to happen my friend, not officially anyway, for the reasons enumerated at nauseaum in previous posts (political, propagandistic, and nationalistic reasons).
Like i said, believe what you wish.
PS: Regarding what Sheytan said about the SA-2 being useless and not shooting down anything according to his information, if that would be the case do i even want to start asking about what actually might have shot down those 2 american fighters (F-15E and F-14) said to be shot down by SA-2s ? Do i ? Or do i want to be really mean and start mentioning the name F-15C here ?:D
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