Tangentially related: In 1988, Iran Air flight 655 was shot down by an American missile cruiser, killing 290 people. It was likely due to a UI problem with the aircraft tracking system on the cruiser that reused an ID number from a potential enemy fighter aircraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
I'd like to point out that one of the main reasons the airplane got shot down is it's transponder had the same signal as Iranian Fighter jets since it passed one before take off on the tarmac. (Discovery's Mayday did an episode on this accident)
It wasn't actually. Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down via a SM-2MR surface-to-air missile. Its the first paragraph on the Wikipedia article.
This is an insanely important distinction, since a fighter pilot would have had the opportunity to visually inspect the craft beforehand. Where in this case, the accident was made due to incorrect system information which misidentified the aircraft as being anything other than a commercial airline.
>Or you've probably never heard of Iran Flight 655, where in 1988 a reckless US cruiser drifted into Iranian waters and shot down an Iranian commercial airplane in Iranian airspace. 290 fatalities, including women and children. 8th deadliest disaster in aviation history, nary a peep in the US media: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655. But they are the reckless terrorists to watch out for.
'Nary a peep in the US media'? Front page in the New York Times and Washington Post?
They shot down a A300 thinking it was an F14, and they were in a heightened level of alert because they (the USS Vincennes) were in Iranian waters, chasing a small naval boat that they claimed shot at their helicopter.
As an aside, the IR655 tragedy was one of the first were data was available to separate fact from fiction.
For context though, KAL-007 had been shot down by the Russians after leaving Alaska to South Korea in 1983, and that same year the truck bombing in Beirut killed also 200+ Americans, so perhaps that played into their decision to fire.
"shot down by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes on 3 July 1988," "All 290 on board, including 66 children and 16 crew, died"
"The Fogarty report stated, "The data from USS Vincennes tapes, information from USS Sides and reliable intelligence information, corroborate the fact that [Iran Air Flight 655] was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile, in the assigned airway, squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from take-off at Bandar Abbas to shoot-down.""
Summary for those who like me didn't know about the incident. Our guy shot down a passenger flight, murdering 290 human beings, we gave him a medal but we then paid USD$213,000 in blood money per passenger to Iran without ever admitting fault.
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Iran Air Flight 655 was an Iran Air passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai. On 3 July 1988, the aircraft operating on this route was shot down by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes under the command of William C. Rogers III. The incident took place in Iranian airspace, over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and on the flight's usual flight path. The aircraft, an Airbus A300 B2-203, was destroyed by SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles fired from Vincennes. All 290 people on board died
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As part of the settlement, the United States did not admit legal liability or formally apologize to Iran but agreed to pay on an ex gratia basis US$61.8 million, amounting to $213,103.45 per passenger, in compensation to the families of the Iranian victims.
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Commander David Carlson, commanding officer of USS Sides, the warship stationed nearest to Vincennes at the time of the incident, is reported to have said that the destruction of the aircraft "marked the horrifying climax to Captain Rogers's aggressiveness, first seen four weeks ago".
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In 1990, Rogers was awarded the Legion of Merit "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer ... from April 1987 to May 1989.
KAL 007 was worse. The Iran Air Flight 655 debacle started with Iranian gun boats firing on one of the ship's helicopters. i.e. the shoot down was during combat initiated by the Iranians. KAL 007 was ultimately shot down because the Soviets involved didn't want to lose face or worse by letting it escape their airspace (it had probably left by the time it was fired upon).
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