CBS Evening News - 1989-01-04
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Read a transcript preview of “CBS Evening News - 1989-01-04” from malgent, uploaded on 2026-02-22.
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Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:06] This is the CBS Evening News. Bob
[0:08] Schiffer sitting in tonight for Dan
[0:09] Rather. Good evening. For the fourth
[0:11] time since President Reagan took office,
[0:13] US forces went into action against Libya
[0:16] today. US Navy fighter planes shot down
[0:18] two Libyan jets in the Mediterranean.
[0:20] The Pentagon called it self-defense,
[0:22] insisted it had nothing to do with a US
[0:25] charge that Libya is building a chemical
[0:27] weapons plant. Libya's Mumar Gaddafi
[0:30] called it an act of American terrorism
[0:32] and he threatened revenge. Our coverage
[0:34] begins with David Martin at the
[0:36] Pentagon.
[0:38] The American pilots saw two planes like
[0:40] this. Soviet built MIG 23s heading
[0:43] straight toward them. The two US planes,
[0:45] F-14 jet fighters, had taken off from
[0:48] the aircraft carrier Kennedy and were
[0:49] flying routine combat patrol about 70 mi
[0:52] off the coast of Libya, hundreds of
[0:54] miles from Gaddafi's infamous line of
[0:56] death, which he has warned the US not to
[0:58] cross. The Libyan jets had taken off
[1:00] from the airfield at Albomba and were
[1:02] headed for the American jets. The F-14
[1:05] pilots maneuvered to avoid the closing
[1:08] aircraft. They changed speed, altitude,
[1:12] and direction. Libyan aircraft continued
[1:15] to close in a hostile manner. At about
[1:18] 14 miles, the US section leader decided
[1:22] his aircraft was in jeopardy and they
[1:24] could wait no longer. The US planes
[1:26] fired four air-to-air missiles. Two of
[1:28] them hit their targets. Both Libyan
[1:30] pilots bailed out. They never got off a
[1:32] shot. That is one major difference
[1:34] between today's incident and the 1981
[1:36] dog fight with Libyan jets in whic