Russia Denies Its Military Aircraft Nearly Collided With Passenger Jet Over Sweden

[TexasProgresive]

13. Not being in the loop on Soviet protocols about the violation of military airspace

but I do know what the U.S. protocol was. An example of this happened in the Philippines. An Aeroflot airliner drifted over Subic Bay Naval station. A fighter pilot friend of mine was ordered with 3 other fighters to intercept the plane. Their standing order was to make contact and to guide the airliner to land and be searched. If the airliner did not comply they were to shoot it down. He told me that he was ready to fire his missile into the port engine and parents were holding their babies to the window to wave to the nice American pilot. Fortunately the airliner complied. He said it would've been the worst thing to do in his life but he would've done his duty.

So my question is still, Why did the Soviets deny the shoot down, unless it's because the plane was over international waters by the time it was shot?

I remember reading the transcript of the pilot that shot down the KAL plane and my thought was that he did it the same as we would only the reaction of the Soviet air defense was woefully slow.