Later in the morning, at 1056 hours, an aircraft similar to an American flying boxcar crossed astern of the Liberty at a distance of about three to five miles. The plane circled the ship around the starboard side, proceeded forward of the ship and headed back toward the Sinai peninsula. This recon-naissance was repeated at approximately 30-minute intervals. It was impossible to see any identifying markings on the aircraft. The plane never approached the Liberty in a provocative manner and made no attempt to signal the ship. Nor did the Liberty attempt to signal it. 7 Subsequent investigations of the attack on the Liberty identified the aircraft as a French-built Noratlas NORD 2501, piloted by Israeli Air Force. -tet" Though this plane was unidentified, the thoughts of Robert L. Wilson (one of three NSA civilians aboard the Liberty) must have been shared by his shipmates. Wilson remembered thinking when he saw the plane, that "it must be Israeli because what else is flying out here at this point in the war and also it's coming from the direction of Israel and it's going back to Israel, so it was obvious that it was Israeli. I didn't think much of it. They were just out there checking us out. That's what I would do too.