Iran Air Flight 655

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Iran Air Flight 655
Iranair655shootdown.png

Drawing of the Airbus A300 that was shot down on Flight 655
Accident summary
Accident type Launch
place Persian Gulf
date 3rd July 1988
Fatalities 290
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type Airbus A300B2-203
operator Iran Air
Mark EP-IBU
Departure airport Mehrabad International Airport
Stopover Bandar Abbas International Airport
Destination airport Dubai International Airport
Passengers 275
crew 15th
Lists of aviation accidents

Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a scheduled flight operated by Iran Air from Tehran via Bandar Abbas , Iran to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates . On July 3, 1988 this route was flown by an Airbus A300B2 with the aircraft registration EP-IBU . The machine was shot down on the second leg of the flight over the Persian Gulf near Qeschm by the crew of the US warship USS Vincennes (CG-49) , killing all 290 people on board. According to the US government, the aircraft had been identified by the ship's crew as an attacking enemy F-14 Tomcat .

It is the worst accident involving an Airbus aircraft as well as the most casualty plane crash in Iran.

Context and sequence of the shooting

An Airbus A300 from Iran Air
The USS Vincennes , which shot down the Airbus
The map shows the start and planned landing point of the Airbus as well as the approximate position when it was shot down

To secure its oil supplies, the United States had relocated parts of the US 5th Fleet to the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will in 1988 to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers from attacks during the First Gulf War . Both war opponents had gone over to attacking merchant ships on the other side in order to affect the enemy’s supplies. In this situation, the 5th Fleet was between the fronts. For example, on May 17, 1987, 37 US soldiers died in an attack by an Iraqi Mirage F1 on the USS Stark .

On July 3, 1988, the Airbus A300 was flown by Captain Mohsen Rezaian and took off from Bandar Abbas at 10:17 a.m. Iranian time, with a 27-minute delay. A flight time of 28 minutes was planned for the route to Dubai. After take-off, the machine was routinely directed from the tower onto the 20-mile-wide airway towards Dubai. The plan was for the machine to climb to 4,300 m, fly briefly at cruising speed and then begin the approach to the airport.

At the same time, the USS Vincennes was under the command of William C. Rogers III and equipped with the then novel Aegis combat system very close, in the Strait of Hormuz . Iran had bought SS-N-2 Styx missiles from the People's Republic of China , and only ships with the Aegis combat system could counteract this threat. The Vincennes had been ordered to the area after the USS Samuel B. Roberts was badly damaged by an Iranian sea ​​mine .

The ship was involved in a battle with Iranian gunboats at the time of the aircraft's downing and was in Iranian territorial waters. A few hours earlier it had already violated Omani sovereignty with the Iranian boats until it was discovered by an Omani warship. The USS Sides and the USS Elmer Montgomery were also nearby.

Bandar Abbas Airport, used by Iran Air Flight 655 as the starting point, was used by both civil and military aircraft at the time. The Airbus was recognized as a civil aircraft by an automatic request from the Vincennes to the transponder of the scheduled aircraft, but the Aegis combat system of the Vincennes identified an F-14 Tomcat . The crew of the Vincennes decided to believe the message from the Aegis system. According to the US, seven warnings were sent to the aircraft on different military frequencies, but the suspected Tomcat did not respond. Three contact attempts were made on the civil emergency radio frequency, but the Iranian crew did not feel addressed, as they read a different speed in the cockpit than the “unidentified Iranian aircraft” called by the USS Vincennes was flying. David Carlson, commander of another nearby American warship, said he was surprised when the Vincennes announced their intention to attack an aircraft that was clearly a civil airline.

After the Aegis system have reported the suspicious plane was quickly deeper and gone "on an intercept," Captain Rogers decided two anti-aircraft missiles of the type -2 SM on the aircraft fire. These hit the passenger jet and completely destroyed it. All 275 passengers , including 66 children, and 15 crew members on board were killed.

Diplomatic consequences

The incident sparked international protests. Iran called it a "barbaric act"; The Iranian government takes the view to this day that the machine was deliberately shot down, although it was clear that it was a civil airliner.

Then-US Vice-President George H. W. Bush defended his military before the United Nations by saying it was a wartime incident; the crew on board the USS Vincennes acted appropriately in the present situation. He declined to apologize on behalf of the United States for the downing.

President Ronald Reagan made an informal apology to the Iranian people on July 5, announcing that Iran had received a letter expressing his deep regret. He also announced that compensation payments would have to be discussed in the future.

In 1996, the United States and Iran agreed in the International Court of Justice that the United States would pay US $ 61.8 million in compensation. Regardless, the US never accepted formal responsibility for the incident.

Investigation in the US Navy

When the accident was investigated, it was revealed that three factors were believed to be the cause of the accident:

  1. The Vincennes' aegis system was flawed.
  2. Incorrect intelligence information
  3. The at least questionable decision-making in the operations center of the USS Vincennes

Bandar Abbas was an airport used by both the military and civilians at the time, and in fact Iran Air 655 and an Iranian F-14 Tomcat are said to have ascended there in quick succession , the signals of which were probably mislocated by the naval Eloka . The Aegis system of the USS Vincennes was therefore not able to evaluate this borderline case correctly, and thereupon identified the flying object in the automatic threat analysis as "hostile-military". For this purpose, the NCO reported the destination as "quickly going deeper", although later evaluated data records of the ship clearly showed that the jet was climbing all the time. The misperception can be explained by the phenomenon of the confirmation error against the background of the attack on the USS Stark .

Captain Rogers received the Legion of Merit Order of “Extraordinary Duty in Service” from George HW Bush in 1990 for his command aboard the Vincennes from April 1987 to May 1989. This medal is often bestowed on high-ranking soldiers after their last service, such as it was the case here.

The shooting down in the media

The shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 was dealt with in the Canadian television series Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit in the episode fatal mix-up (original title: Mistaken Identity; season 3, episode 5). In simulated scenes, animations and interviews with bereaved relatives and investigators, reports were made about the preparations, the process and the background of the flight.

See also

Web links

Commons : Iran Air Flight 655  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Fisher: The forgotten story of Iran Air Flight 655, In: Washington Post of October 16, 2013, accessed on September 8, 2014 (English)
  2. ↑ Noam Chomsky: Who rules the world? 3. Edition. Ullstein Buchverlage, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-550-08154-5 , p. 219 .
  3. ↑ Molly Moore, Bill McAllister: REAGAN APOLOGIZED TO IRAN FOR DOWNING OF JETLINER ( English ) washingtonpost.com. July 6, 1988. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  4. ^ The Iran-Iraq War: The Politics of Aggression by Farhang Rajaee University Press of Florida
  5. ↑ The Navy's official probe said the five sailors who thought their ship was under attack were engaging in "scenario fulfillment" caused by "an unconscious attempt to make available evidence fit a preconceived scenario."
  6. ↑ Medals Go To Top Officers in Charge of Vincennes The Orlando Sentinel
  7. ↑ Mayday - Alarm in the cockpit: "Tragedy in the Gulf" (Original title: Mistaken Identity) Season 3 Episode 5.

Coordinates: 26 ° 40 ′  N , 56 ° 3 ′  E