18 years ago today

July 3rd 1988: US warship shoots down Iranian airliner

An American naval warship patrolling in the Persian Gulf has shot down an Iranian passenger jet after apparently mistaking it for an F-14 fighter. All those on board the airliner - almost 300 people - are believed dead.

The plane, an Airbus A300, was making a routine flight from Bandar Abbas, in Iran, to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The plane blew up six miles from the Vincennes, the wreckage falling in Iranian territorial waters. Iranian ships and helicopters have been searching for survivors but none have so far been found. Iranian television broadcast scenes of bodies floating amid scattered debris.

Iran has reacted with outrage, accusing the United States of a "barbaric massacre" and vowed to "avenge the blood of our martyrs".

President Reagan said the Vincennes had taken "a proper defensive action" and called the incident an "understandable accident", although he said he regretted the loss of life.

Most of those on board the Iranian Airbus were Iranians on their way to Mecca. The victims also included 66 children and 38 foreign nationals. An official inquiry carried out by the US attributed the mistake to human error.

However, the Iranian government has always disputed the American version of events.

It took four years for the US administration to admit officially that the USS Vincennes was in Iranian waters when the skirmish took place with the Iranian gunboats.

Subsequent investigations have accused the US military of waging a covert war against Iran in support of Iraq.

The US government has never admitted responsibility or apologised for the tragedy.

news.bbc.co.uk...

"The crew of the Vincennes received combat-action ribbons. The air warfare coordinator on board, Lt. Cmdr. Scott Lustig, received a commendation medal for his ability to "quickly and precisely complete the firing procedure"--the same firing procedure that shot down Flight 655."

Iran Air Flight 655 was one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th century that ultimately became forgotten. The my government never apologized, never held Captain Rogers accountable. It was an absolutely despicable act, and even more despicable that we chose to blame Iran and act innocent (which, we are not).

Even among many military men (mostly former and the truly patriotic types), this incident is still highly troubling and it pretty much defines the state of the U.S. military today.

There were a lot of odd things about this shoot down. The lack of transmissions from the plane, even though they should have been monitoring GUARD, the fact that they got to the bodies quickly but they were all bloated already, and all of them (or at least a large portion) were naked....

Ever see the video from the bridge where it proves that it was identified as a Iranian F-14, and the fact that the crew ignored repeated warnings? I'm sure the video fake, hired actors, planned by Rumsfeld ect.

Oh wait, I forgot, the U.S. Military is only in business to kill innocent people, that's why they haven't nuked or firebombed a city since the 40's. They like to do it as slow as possible and space them out every couple years so they can lower the population to their goal number by 8959 A.D.