Syria's air defenses kill 15 Russian airmen in the latest embarrassing blunder

"It would be very unlikely that the Israelis were trying to engineer a situation where the Syrians shot down a Russian plane," Bronk said, but perhaps they did intend to use the Il-20 overhead to convince Syria not to shoot. "The S-200 is not a very sophisictated system," said Bronk. "It's not going to distinguish between a fighter and a big plane."