US Navy Missile Downs Iranian Flight 655 A300 with 290 people onboard Washington Post Monday, July 4, 1988 A U.S. warship fighting gunboats in the Persian Gulf yesterday mistook an Iranian civilian jetliner for an attacking Iranian F14 fighter plane and blew it out of the hazy sky with a heat-seeking missile, the Pentagon announced. Iran said 290 persons were aboard the European-made A300 Airbus and that all had perished. Almost five years after a Soviet fighter pilot shot down an off-course Korean Air Lines Flight 007, killing 269 people. The U.S. government deeply regrets this incident, Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference. The disaster occurred at mid-morning over the Strait of Hormuz, when the airliner, Iran Air Flight 655, on what Iran described as a routine 140-mile flight from its coastal city of Bandar Abbas southwest to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, apparently strayed too close to two U.S. Navy warships that were engaged in a battle with Iranian gunboats. The USS Vincennes, a cruiser equipped with the most sophisticated radar and electronic battle gear in the Navys surface arsenal, tracked the oncoming plane electronically, warned it to keep away, and when it did not fired two Standard surface-to-air missiles. Navy officials said the Vincennes combat teams believed the airliner to be an Iranian F14 jet fighter. No visual contact was made with the aircraft until it was struck and blew up about six miles from the Vincennes; the planes wreckage fell in Iranian territorial waters, Navy officials said. Iranian vessels and helicopters searched for survivors, but there was no indication last night that anyone survived what apparently is the sixth worst aviation disaster. Iranian television broadcast scenes of bodies floating amid scattered debris. It was the first time any U.S. military unit had shot down a civilian airliner. It occurred almost five years after a Soviet fighter pilot shot down an off-course Korean Air Lines Flight 007, killing 269 people. Iran accused the United States of a barbaric massacre and vowed to avenge the blood of our martyrs. President Reagan in a statement said he was saddened to report that the Vincennes in a proper defensive action had shot down the jetliner. This is a terrible human tragedy. Our sympathy and condolences go out to the passengers, crew, and their families . . . . We deeply regret any loss of life.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 18:42:12 +0000
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