the ship's plog ship's log recorded an aircraft. >> those are photoreconnaissance aircraft. >> israelitographs recovered by the americans, found it was hull number gtr 5. >> i was on the bridge, i'm john scott, the damage control officer. it circled the ship in kind of a broad circle and headed back towards israel. >> israeli planes then continued to fly over the liberty, all morning. >> and they would do half-moon passes over us and we saw they were israeli. >> they were slowly lumbering over our ship. we were waving at them, they were waving at us. >> they were almost as sophisticated as us. we supplied them with all the technology to this day. >> and we felt we were in great shape because they knew who we were. >> it was secure to see them. >> one other thing that made the crew feel safe. >> we had an american flag to fly standard and then the holiday colors which was a huge american flag. it was a bright sunny day, the wind was blowing five or 10 knots. >> meanwhile israeli military jets were on the way. on the realtime audio tape, obtained by al jazeera, at 1:15 p.m. israeli pilot