I was in the Navy. All the tech and training in the world isn't going to be foolproof if its run by a bunch of teenagers, especially if they're scared, tired and being yelled at by hysterical officers. Accidents happen all the time, people get hurt, killed, machinery breaks down, systems screw up, procedures are overwhelmed, or people just get lazy and lose track of what they're doing. There are radar-assisted collisions and GPS-assisted groundings, and sometimes people just spend too much time talking to machines and forget to look out of one of those little round windows. You, of all people, shouldn't be seduced by the infallibility of modern technology, especially when interfaced with human operators. Silicon Valley engineers make that mistake, real people know better.

Vincennes shot down that airliner by accident, mostly because they were already maneuvering violently, guns blazing away, in the middle of a surface action against Iranian gunboats. Maybe somebody made a wrong decision, thinking the airliner was a real threat disguised as a civilian craft, part of a coordinated attack. Maybe somebody just forgot to check a verifying readout before he pulled the trigger. But it was not a deliberate killing of innocents. I'm willing to believe those separatist gunners in the Ukraine made the same kind of mistake. It just makes no sense, there is nothing to gain by shooting down an airliner, but there is a lot to lose if anyone finds out you did.

In the case of KAL 007 I think the USSR really did think they were shooting down the US spook plane that regularly eavesdropped on their communications and who frequently tailgated the commercial flights in that area to disguise itself.(How do you think we "just happened" to record their tactical communications?) The airliner WAS off course for a while, in Soviet airspace, although by the time it was hit it was already in intl waters.

The U2s were guilty as charged, as were those RB-47s shot down over Siberia. I've got a few stories of my own I could add to the list. Believe me, both sides are good sports about it. When they truly get caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they usually keep quiet about it to spare each other the embarrassment. Too bad about the crews that manage to bail out, though.

Have you ever seen "The Bedford Incident"? Yes, stuff like that really happens. And in combat it happens all the time.