Chemical Reaction: The U.S. presses Libya over a nerve-gas plant

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In its defense, the Pentagon released a dramatic videotape and voice recording of the aerial encounter taken from one of the F-14 Tomcats. The seven-minute audiotape chronicles the five evasive turns made by the Navy flyers in an effort to shake the MiG-23 "Floggers" that headed at them some 70 miles off the Libyan coast, well into international waters.

Moreover, the State Department disclosed that it has been quietly exchanging messages with Gaddafi for several weeks and that it sent the Libyan government a detailed explanation of last week's shooting incident. Still, Libya's U.N. Deputy Ambassador, Ali Sunni Muntasser, charged that the Navy had attacked two unarmed reconnaissance planes. U.S. Ambassador Vernon Walters responded by presenting the Security Council with blowups of two photos showing air-to-air missiles under the wings and fuselage of one of the Libyan MiGs. Charged Pentagon spokesman Dan Howard: "The Libyan Ambassador to the U.N. is a liar." At week's end Gaddafi proposed direct talks with the U.S. to resolve the dispute.

The Libyan Floggers had approached the American planes with apparent deliberation and determination. Flying at 20,000 ft., the F-14s picked up the Libyans on their radar screens at 11:57 a.m. on Wednesday. The "bogeys," as U.S. airmen call any potentially hostile planes, were 72 nautical miles away at 10,000 ft., heading directly toward the U.S. planes and the Kennedy.

The F-14s turned away from the approaching aircraft, a clear signal that the American pilots were not looking for a fight. To the surprise of the U.S. crews, the Libyan planes shifted abruptly ("jinked," in pilot jargon) to get back on a nose-to-nose lineup with the Americans. The distance between the two pairs of jets was closing at roughly 1,000 m.p.h.

In another evasive maneuver, the F-14s dove to 3,000 ft. This gave the Navy flyers a tactical advantage: their radar could now look up for a clear view of the approaching targets. The less sophisticated Soviet-made radars on the Libyan craft had to contend with the clutter of the sea.

At 11:59 the radar-intercept officer (RIO), seated behind the lead Tomcat pilot, armed his plane's short-range Sidewinder missiles and its longer-range Sparrow rockets. Outmanned and outgunned in their less maneuverable Floggers, the lone Libyan pilots had to fly their planes, watch their radars and handle their weapons without airborne help.

The U.S. pilots made three more efforts to shake their pursuers. Each . time, observers in a Navy E-2C radar plane flying nearby heard the Libyan ground controller order the MiG pilots to jink into potential collision courses with the Tomcats. The MiGs normally carry radar-guided Apex as well as heat-seeking Aphid missiles. While the Aphid homes in on a jet's fiery exhaust, the Apex is effective when launched at a target's nose.

At 12 noon the trailing Tomcat flying in the wing position locked its radar on one of the Floggers. In numerous past skirmishes, Libyan pilots had reported any such radar targeting to their ground controller, who had always told them to break off and head home. This time, U.S. authorities insisted, the pilot did not send any such alarm.