Home > Iran Air Flight 655

The first leg of the flight went as planned, and the plane, an Airbus A300, left Bandar Abbas at 9:50am that day. It would have been a 28 minute flight.

At that same time, the US Navy guided missile cruiser, USS Vincennes, fitted with the Aegis combat system, was nearby in the Strait of Hormuz which the commercial airliner, flown by captain Mohsen Rezaian , would pass over. The American ship was captained by Commander William C. Rogers III. At the time of the incident, the Vincennes was within Iranian territorial waters, in an encounter with Iranian naval boats.

What happened next has long been debated.

According to US government accounts, the American ship mistakingly identified the Iranian airplane as an attacking military jet. According to the same reports the American ship tried more than once to contact Flight 655, but there was no acknowledgement. At 9:54am, with the civilian jet about 10 miles away, the Americans fired SM-2 antiaircraft missiles. One broke the plane into two halves and also damaged the plane's tail and right wing sections. Only afterwards it was realised that the plane had indeed been a civilian airliner.

This version was finalised in a report [1] by Admiral Fogarty titled "Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Downing of Iran Air Flight 655 on 3 July 1988". This report is so far only partially released (part I in 1988, part II in 1993), a fact criticised by many observers.

Independent investigations into the events though have resulted in a different picture. Barry and Charles from the Newsweek magazine came to the conclusion that Captain Rogers acted recklessly and without due care. The report further accused the US government of a cover-up. [2]

An analysis [3] of the events by the International Strategic Studies Association described the deployment of an Aegis cruiser in the zone as irresponsible and felt that the expense of the ship had played a major part in the setting of a low threshold for opening fire.

While issuing notes of regret over the loss of human life, the US government has so far not admitted any wrongdoing or responsibility in this tragedy, nor apologized, but continued to blame Iranian hostile actions for the incident.

In a judgement from the 6 November 20032003 is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar), and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Summary Perhaps the defining global event of the year 2003 was the Invasion of Iraq launched by the U the International Court of JusticeThe International Court of Justice (known colloquially as the World Court is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Established in 1945, its main functions are to settle disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions on lega concluded that American navy's actions in the Persian Gulf at the time had been unlawful.

Most officers involved in the shooting down of the aircraft received decorations for their action.

The incident continued to overshadow the Iranian-American relationship for many years. Following the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan Am's regular Frankfurt- London- New York- Detroit flight. On December 21, 1988, it was the target of a terrorist attack that caused the aircraft to explode over the Scottish border town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people. The attac the BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly and American governments initially publicly blamed the PFLP-GC, a PalestinianPalestinian flag, adopted in 1948, is a widely recognized modern symbol of the Palestinian people. Palestinian While there are various older or different definitions of "Palestinian" (discussed in Definitions of Palestine#Palestinian), the overwhelming ma terrorist group backed by SyriaThe Syrian Arab Republic is a country in Southwest Asia, bordering (from south to north) on Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. The border with Israel is subject to dispute, pending the resolution of outstanding conflicts over possession of the Gola, with assumptions of assistance from Iran in retaliation for Iran Air Flight 655. Only later this blame was shifted onto Libya.