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From ACIG.org Western & Northern Africa Database
In 1969 the King Idriz of Libya was overthrown in a CIA-supported coup. The reason for the US support was a series of disagreements with the previous regime. Certainly, at the time nobody could predict that Libya - under the leadership of its new dictator, Colonel Kadaffi - was to antagonize the USA massively during the following years. Shortly after climbing to power, Ghadaffi forced the USA and the Great Britain to leave all their bases and pull out all their troops stationed in the country. In the following months, Libya contacted France, requesting help in building a strong military, a move at best illustrated by an order for no less but 53 Mirage 5D fighter-bombers, 32 Mirage 5DE interceptors (equipped with Cyrano radar and R.530F SARH AAMs), 10 Mirage 5DR recce planes, and 15 Mirage 5DD two-seaters, issued in January 1970. In the wake of this order, also a considerable amount of support equipment, spares and weapons were purchased, as well as nine SA.321M Super Frelon helicopters, ten SA.316B Alouette IIs, and 12 CM170 Magister trainers. Before the end of the same year, Libyans even managed to assure a purchase of 16 C-130H Hercules transports from the USA.
The early Libyan Air Force (LAF) - soon to be re-named "Libyan Arab Republic Air Force" (LARAF) - was a small arm, and there were immense problems with training enough personnel for all these aircraft. Therefore, cooperation with the Egyptian AF was established and this detached some 50 pilots to be trained for the Libyan Mirages. In 1973, some of Libyan Mirages and pilots - together with additional examples built especially for Egypt - took part in the October War against Israel, albeit, it seems most of the combat missions flown by Libyan fighters were undertaken by the Egyptians, even if the Libyan authorities later claimed that no less but 400 sorties were flown by LARAF pilots during the war. The last of the original 110 Mirage 5s was still not delivered to Libya, when the first rumours about immense problems with training of LAF cadets became known in the public. Supposedly, Libyans were poor, slow, and lazy students, and despite a huge number of candidates, only a handful would manage to qualify for fast jets. Pretty soon, this forced the LAF to take many foreign instructors under contract, and already in 1971 the first group of Pakistanis was working with four Libyan units stationed at the el-Adem/Gamal Abdel Nasser AB, which became the main base for Libyan Mirage 5 operations. Nevertheless, in 1974, the LAF ordered 38 Mirage F.1s, including six F.1BD two-seaters, 16 F.1ED interceptors (these were equipped „only“ with R.530F SARH and R.550 Mk.1 IRH AAMs: LARAF has never got any Super 530s), and 20 F.1AD fighter-bombers. As the type was new even to the French AF at the time, first deliveries followed only in January 1978. A total of three units was equipped with F.1s, and these were initially foremost stationed at the Okba bin Nafi AB, near Tripolis. Simultaneously with this order, the Libyan Army also purchased 20 Meridionali-Boeing CH-47C Chinook transport helicopters, as well as ten Cessna O-1 Bird Dogs.
During the October War, 1973, the Libyans established contacts to Moscow, and for the rest of the 1970s, as well as the whole 1980s, the LARAF developed into one of the most important Soviet clients, and most powerfull air forces in Africa and Mediterranean. Initially, the Libyans were swift to assure deliveries of 14 Tu-22B bombers and some 24 MiG-23MS interceptors. By the time this happened, in late 1973 and early 1974, the Libyans were already for the first time on a collision course with the USA, which were obviously curious to learn more about the development of the Libyan Air Force. On 21 March 1973, for example, an C-130B-II of the 7406th CSS USAF, was intercepted by Libyan fighters while operating north of Tripolis, and - according to available reports - damaged by gunfire in what was an unsuccessful attempt to force it to land in Libya.
The subsequent decisions of the Libyan leadership increased the antagonism with the West. In 1973, Libya annected the whole northern Chad, the so-called „Aouzou-Strip“, and afterwards Kadaffi became a close friend and supporter of such tyrannic characters like the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, or the Central African „Emperor“ Bokassa. In 1977, Libya also fought a short war with Egypt, and in 1979 it supported Amin’s troops in an attempted attack against Tanzania. Finally, in 1979, Libyans also attacked Tunis, while subsequently the country established intensive contacts to something like 50 different terrorist organizations around the world. Clearly, sooner or later, a more direct confrontation with the USA was unavoidable, especially once the new administration of President Reagan came to power in Washington, in 1981. During the second half of the 1970s the LARAF received huge numbers of modern Soviet-built fighters. By 1980, no less but 143 MiG-23MS’ and MiG-23BNs were delivered. Interestingly, most of these were immediately put into deep storage, just like some of a total of over 80 MiG-25PDs and MiG-25RBs, as there was simply not enough personnel to take care and fly them all, but also because the Libyan regime learned from Arab and Israeli experiences in 1973, and wanted always to have a reserve for the case of a war. Also, it seems that the Soviets might have planned to make use of these aircraft in the case of a war against the NATO. Simultaneously, the Libyan strike component was also reinforced by approximately 36 Su-20Ms, and some 60 Su-22M-2/3Ks. Again, a portion of these was stored upon delivery, and obviously kept in reserve, so that by the summer of 1981, the LARAF permanently flew only something like 155 fighters of all types. Before this was so far, on direct orders from Col. Kaddaffi, the LARAF started "flexing its muscels", and Libyan fighters were soon observed flying reconnaissance operations in the areas around Malta, Crete, and even the Ionian Sea. Usually, they would be intercepted by Italian, US, or other NATO fighters: in at least one case, however, they were probably involved in an incident that remains a mystery until today.
One of the possibly first Libyan-US clashes might have happened on the early evening of the 27 June 1980, when, at approximately 20:59h local time, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15 (C/n 45724/22, built in 1966, coded I-TIGI), Flight Number 870, owned by Italian Itavia airline, underway from Bologna (airfield Borgo Panigale) to Palermo (airfield Punta Raisi) on Sicily, crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Ustica and Ponza Islands, off the Sicilian coast, some 80 miles south of Naples. Nobody of four crewmembers and 77 passengers survived and the wreckage sank to a depth of some 3500 meters. Sadly, it is a fact, that catastrophic accidents with passenger aircraft happen several times every year, but, however tragic for all involved and shocking for observers they are, the reasons for most of them can be cleared due to excellent investigation methods developed in the last 30 years. In this case, from the first moments after the crash this tragedy was covered under a thick veil of secrecy for completely unknown reasons. In this case a whole series of investigations undertaken by Italian authorities failed to clear the reasons behind the death of 81 people aboard Itavia’s DC-9, while a mysterious found of a L During the SAR operations, which lasted several days, floating debris and 38 bodies were recovered from an area of several hundred square kilometers. During the first few years after the accident, the evidence compiled during SAR operations was the only available for the reconstruction of the tragedy. As none of this was conclusive, various commissions formed during the last 20 years failed to find out why the aircraft crashed, except that it probably did break up in flight and the cause of this was either a missile or an internal explosion. No wonder: very soon there were suggestions that the DC-9 had been shot down and this view has been expressed strongly by many people ever since. Tons of paper has been wasted on the subject: newspaper reports meanwhile regularly implicated the involvement of the Italian Air Force, the US Navy, the Libyans, the Israelis, the Russians - actually, almost anybody - in the tragedy. Even Libyan leader Khaddafi mixed in blaming the United States, but offered no evidence. Several TV programs, one film and several books were published, most of them „proving“ the theory, that the DC-9 was hit by an air-to-air or surface to air missile. At least eight different hypothesis were presented for „why this happened“, starting from some explaining that the DC-9 was downed by a French submarine firing a SM-1 Standard SAM from a special installation on the fin, that the plane crash-landed but was still afloat when frogmen placed explosive charges on it to make it definitively sink, that US or French fighters tried to shot down the plane in which Libyan leader Ghaddafi was underway, or that even Ghaddafi flew with one of the MiGs, trying to shot down the plane with which US president was underway. The main reason for such wild claims is, that in the meantime, the official investigation was stuck in the middle of strange series of problems and controversies. The first Commission which worked on the case, lead by Rome's deputy attorney Santacroce, presented the first report in the late summer of 1980. It was a relatively disappointing document, some 35 pages long. The most important moment in the investigation that far was the question of bands with the data from radar observations of the given area. The bands of the flight control in Ciampino showed namely, that shortly before the DC-9 crashed, an unknown aircraft closed to it from the West. But, as the data on the bands was not completely clear, and as it actually showed three possible contacts (but also possible „bogus“ contacts), Santacroce asked the Italian Territorial Air Defence (DAT) for help. This was a logical move as the radars of the Italian Air Force were certainly capable of delivering a better picture. Strangely, all his calls remained unanswered and were completely ignored by the DAT. Only after some insisting and help from the Italian Defence Ministry, Santacroce finally got the „permission“ to talk with people who worked in the DAT's control center responsible for the area where the accident happened. But, those answered not to remember anything and that all the bands with recordings from that evening were blotted out! Thus, the investigation was finished before it even started, because a part of the Italian military blocked it. In 1983, one of the leading Italian dailies interviewed John Transue, advisor for aerial warfare in Pentagon, which researched the remaining tapes with records from the radar in Ciampino from that evening. Transue stated, that the flying object closing on the DC-9 had the characteristics of an interceptor, that it operated according to classic interception tactics, and that the smallest distance between it and the Itavia’s jet was ideal for launching air-to-air missiles. The American also remarked, that the US 6th Fleet most probably had records from that night, but that so far nobody from Italy asked for them, so they were also destroyed after some time. Several members of the Italian parliament and President Cossiga, which in 1986 asked Prime Minister Craxi to solve the enigma once and for all, initiated the final series of investigations. In 1987, Italian courts contracted a US company to search for and recover pieces of the wreckage, as well as to supply video documents about it. During that enterprise, no less than 5.000 pieces of the DC-9 (approximately 65% of the plane), including the flight data recorded, were recovered. The remants of the plane recovered and the radar tracks available to investigators seemed to be compatible with the scenario of unidentified aircraft closing from the West, firing two SARH missiles from a distance of ten nautical miles and guiding them towards the unlucky DC-9. Then, in September 1990, Italian judge Priore indicted four Italian generals - including a former air force chief - for allegedly withholding radar records to try to cover up what happened in the night of June 27, 1980. In the indictment, Priore wrote, that all radar evidence (according to the so-called „radar report“) that remained indicated that the airliner was hit by a missile or plunged into the sea after swerving to avoid an accident. He also gave credence to a theory that a missile went astray during an attack by a US fighter, or one from another NATO-member, against a Libyan plane thought to be carrying Libyan leader Moammar Khaddafi. According to Priore, a military aircraft darted into the flight path of the DC-9 just as the airliner was passing by, most probably trying to take cover by flying parallel to the DC-9. He concluded, that this must have been a military plane, since no other civilian plane was flying that route at the time and place. One of the generals was found for guilty and sentenced, however, still no explanations for why it happened were found.
Currently, there is a large process in Italy, involving over 2.000 witnesses, which should finally solve this mystery. Interestingly, today, there are two most important results of the investigations undertaken so far. The first version, supported foremost by Italian technicians which worked on the reconstruction of the salvaged parts of the wreckage, says that the DC-9 was hit by two semi-active radar-guided missiles while flying at its cruise altitude, 25.000 feet. One of the possibly two missiles that hit the airliner, hit the fuselage in front of the starboard wing, passed through the aircraft and detonated, with the debris venting outside the port side of the fuselage, but leaving traces of splinters in several different parts of the wreckage. According to this version, this detonation ripped one large and several small holes in the port side of the fuselage and a swift decompression followed, which dragged 13 passengers, some seats, baggage and several other objects outside the aircraft, all of which were later found some 20 kilometers (15 miles) from the point where the plane impacted the sea. Most probably, so the theory, both missiles were of the semi-active radar-homing type, as they hit the mid-fuselage: IR-guided missiles would cause substantial damage to the engines and the fin, but no such traces could be found. The second version, based on the work of several independent technicians from Germany, Sweden and the UK, which produced the report from the „technical investigation“, counters with stating that there is actually no evidence that any missiles hit the aircraft and that all the damage was caused by the crash, but supports the theory, that the plane actually broke-up in the flight, after being blown up by a bomb positioned in the area of the rear (starboard) toilet. Supposedly, the bomb not only caused the roof of the plane to be partially blown away, but also one engine, other objects and 13 passengers. One argument supports both of these theories: both the recordings of the flight-data recorder and the cockpit-voice-recorder quit to work at exactly the same time due to disconnection from the source of power. Thus, there are no recordings about what happened in the last moments of the DC-9. When reading and hearing all the possible reports and theories about this tragedy published so far, one thing becomes clear from the first moment: even if the DC-9 crashed after a small bomb placed in the area of its rear toilet, the sky over the Mare Tirreno (Tyrrhenian Sea) seems to have been a place where something very chaotic and mysterious happened in the night of the 27 June 1980. But, what and why? For most of the Italians, the results of the „technical investigation“ are not satisfying, foremost because of the results of the work of their own technicians which talk about the missile hit(s), as much as because of the „radar report“. But, even more important for them are following facts, which weren’t explained so far. It started within the moments after the DC-9-15 disappeared from the screens of the Italian flight controllers at Ciampino, without any sign of previous problems and without sending any distress call. After several calls from the flight control remained unanswered and the plane didn't appeared on the radar screens again, the controller alarmed the SAR parties on Rome's Ciampino airfield. After contacting these, he got the response, that they are already underway. So, it seems, that rescue teams from Ciampino got the call to move out before anybody noticed civilian flight control. But, according to first official reports published, this was impossible, as there was a military exercise in Licola, which was responsible for SAR-missions in that area of the Tyrrhenian Sea. To contrary, one day after the accident, the Italian Defence minister released the statement, which remained official until today: According to it, there were no Italian, US, French or any other NATO aircraft in the proximity of the DC-9 which crashed, and there were no military exercises in that area. Following that US, French and NATO officials also strongly denied that any military activity took place in the skies over Tyrrhenian Sea that night. So, according to military officials, any „mistake“ of some NATO-fliers was impossible. According to some rumours, however, during later investigations, somebody found out, that military radars recorded the movements of NATO aircraft in the air corridor „Ambra 13 Alpha“ (the triangle between Ponza, Ustica and Palermo, where the DC-9 crashed), which flew some „routine“ exercises. However, it seems that the only eyewitnesses which seemed to be ready to talk (or already talked too much) were killed in a series of traffic accidents. All this facts would still perhaps be declared for fantasy, if there was not a group of Sicilian shepherds, which, almost a month after the crash, on 18 July 1980, found a wreckage of an unknown military jet on the northern side of the 1929 meter high Mount Sila, in the middle of the Italian province of Calabria. The body of the pilot was still tied on his ejection seat, and on his helmet, the name of the pilot was written: Ezedin Koal. The investigators found out, that Koal flew a MiG-23 of the Libyan Arab Republic Air Force. According to the following autopsy he was dead for at least 15 to 20 days. The investigation of the wreckage showed, that the crash was most probably caused by an air-to-air missile, which exploded in close proximity of the plane and damaged fuel tanks. Immediately, there were evident attempts from Italian military authorities to clear all the links between this accident and the downing of the DC-9. It was explained, that the plane crashed while the pilot tried to defect to Italy. However, nobody tried to explain officially how could a Libyan MiG-23 fly so deep into the Italian airspace, without being detected by any of Italian and NATO-radars in the vicinity or why would a damaged Libyan MiG-23 hit the northern side of a mountain on Calabria, if the pilot tried to defect from Libya? Interestingly, much later, in 1997, one of Italy’s newspapers stated that no less than 30 different fighters were involved in the accident of the DC-9 or at least flew in the vicinity at the time, all of them with their IFF- and radar-transponders intentionally shut off to avoid being identified by civilian flight control. Technically, the author of this article is an outsider and not involved in any investigations regarding the catastrophe of the Flight 870, however, he followed the controversy surrounding the story for years, trying to compile as much materials as possible. The story presented here is surely no effort to "solve the myster", but rather a compilation of most interesting versions of what could have happened with the DC-9. The tensions between Washington and Tripoli were already high when in the night of 27 June 1980, supposedly a plane with the US president Carter should have flown over the Mediterranean, and cross the Tyrrhenian Sea. Also supposedly, approximately in the same airspace an unknown aircraft with the Libyan leader onboard was underway, bringing Khaddafi back from a visit to Eastern Europe. There are also rumors, that there were some live-firing exercises of the Italian Air Force and the French Navy over Sicily in the same night. Any way, a good part of Italian and NATO bases was in alert condition, as usually when higher politicians are transiting their areas or there are live-firing exercises. Most probably around 20:45h local time either the radars on different Italian or NATO-bases, or on the ships of the US 6th Fleet, detected one or two unidentified aircraft first crossing Sicily, and then closing towards Rome. After many claxons went off on different airfields - and possibly one of the French carriers which took part in the live-firing exercise - several NATO airplanes - it is impossible to say if Italian Starfighters, French F-8 Crusaders or Super Etendards, Spanish Mirage F.1s or Phantoms, US F-4 Phantoms or even F-14 Tomcats (at the time, two US carriers were in the Mediterranean, USS Saratoga CV-60, with CVW-3 onboard and USS John F. Kennedy, with CVW-1 onboard) - took off and tried to intercept the intruders: probably Libyan MiG-23MS. This downgraded export version was not as modern as original Soviet MiG-23Ms, nevertheless, it offered a range which was large enough to reach Neaples when starting from Tripoli, and it also had some night-fighting capabilities if flown by well trained pilot.
Surely, what possibly followed remains unknown, but one of the probable results of such MiG-23-hunt was, that one of the MiGs detected the DC-9 and - thinking he found the airplane of the US president - fired two K-13R/AA-2-2 Atoll semi-active radar guided missiles which hit their target, before he was shot down and the wreckage crashed - almost intact - at the Sila Mountain. Another possible version, however, is that both Libyans were bounced by NATO-fighters. One MiG-23 came away, while the other had several NATO-fighters in hot pursuit behind his back. Fleeing in the dark, the Libyan pilot finally closed on the DC-9 and tried to escape by flying only several meters underneath the airliner. Possibly, one of the pilots who were searching for him finally got a good radar contact, turned around and fired two missiles. From what the investigations showed so far, it is impossible to say of which type these were, French R.530s, US AIM-7 Sparrows, Italian Aspides (main armament of IMI’s F-104Gs) or Soviet-built AA-2-2 radar-guided Atolls? Probably two hit the DC-9. The passenger cabin was heavily damaged, causing a sudden decompression at high level. Parts of the fuselage separated and - according to official reports - seven minutes later the plane finally crashed into the sea. The MiG didn’t manage to get much further either, as the blast of the explosion also damaged its fuel tanks, causing a catastrophic loss of fuel. With most of its systems damaged the Libyan pilot finally became disoriented and flew into the Mount Sila. It was an end of a possible adventure, the sense of which certainly remains a mystery. Whatever happened in the night of 27 June 1980, afterwards the USA felt compelled to send their reconnaissance aircraft closer to Libya, into the Gulf of Syrte, in order to be able to monitor the operations of the Libyan Air Force more closely. Hardly three months later, the first serious accident between US recce planes and Libyan fighters was reported, when on 16 September 1980 one RC-135U of the 55th SRW was intercepted by reportedly up to 15 Libyan Mirage F.1ED and MiG-23MS interceptors. Supposedly, only the fast arrival of several Phantoms of the US Navy stopped the Libyans from shooting the ELINT-bird down. On the first view, it seems this and another similar incident hardly a month later, however, were not in a direct connection with what happened to Italian DC-9. One can only ask what kind of terrible truth is behind all this cover-up and why was it necessary for high ranking Italian officers to endanger their carriers, deliver half-truths and misinformations? Why was the Italian Air force ready to loose so much of its credibility in this case? Because some of the NATO-fighters tried to intercept an unknown intruder but ended hitting the DC-9? Was really some „delta-winged“ airplane - as one of the supposed eyewitnesses stated - involved in this incident? Or, was the plane simply lost to a bomb placed in the toilette, as most recent investigation of the wreck by a group of international technicians concluded? The fact, that even after 20 years so many people in Italy still do care about what really happened, prompted Italian authorities to start this final process of searching for the truth. Eventually however, the reasons for this mystery will most probably not be found due to the examination of the accident itself, but from some external revelation that my prove the real reasons behind such shoot down. Italians now hope, that this mammoth process will bring someone to speak.
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