#iran air flight 655
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Recently have been on a binge of the Mayday: Air Crash Investigations/Air Disasters TV series. One episode stood out to me.
Mistaken Identity. The disaster of Iran Air Flight 655. An Iranian passenger plane that was mistakenly identified as a fighter jet by the US navy and shot down on 3 July 1988. Of course, there's far more to it than that.
The US navy vessel sent a helicopter to scout a vessel it had identified on radar. The vessel fired shots at their helicopter, so the helicopter retreated, and the navy vessel was deployed to respond with force. Had the US never initiated contact, the battle that would lead to a captain calling for the shootdown of the plane never would have occurred.
Iran Air Flight 655 was an Airbus A300 passenger jet with 290 people aboard.
I can't find their names anywhere.
The captain that called for the shootdown of the jet was later awarded. President Reagan expressed "regrets" for the "tragedy," but a formal apology was never issued.
Don't take my words out of context - 9/11 was absolutely a tragedy. But part of me has to wonder - why do we, as Americans, act as if the rest of the world must grieve with us, groveling at our damn feet, meanwhile we've done heinous acts like this, and expect them to be swiftly forgotten, swept under the rug, with a "I swear it was an accident, I swear, guys"?
I'm angry I was never told about Iran Air 655. I was a baby when 9/11 happened. I don't remember it at all. Yet I know about it. But when our military does something heinous, nobody speaks a word of it, or they dress it in such pretty words, you don't even realize how sickeningly awful it was.
I'm angry that many of my fellow Americans think people in other countries hate us because they're "bad people." They are people, like you and me, and they have every reason to despise us.
I am sorry, Iran Air 655.
I am sorry nobody ever said sorry. Regrets and money are not apologies. You deserved humanity, not "shut up" compensation.
I hope at least some remember now.
#iran air flight 655#airbus a300#airbus#tw plane crash#tw plane accident#plane crash#plane accident#military violence#art#my art#spicy prow#sorry for the sudden serious post#and sorry that I dont know what to tag it as so nobody gets shocked with this picture#i just dont know what to tag it as.#ask to tag#I had a lot of feelings and had to draw this
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🇮🇷🇺🇸 On July 3, 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 tragically was shot down. A U.S. cruiser fired a sea-to-air missile, resulting in the loss of 290 innocent lives. The U.S. never apologized and the captain even received a medal.
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1988-Iran Air Flight 655
United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas that was shot down on 3 July 1988 by two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles fired by the USS Vincennes, a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. The missiles hit the aircraft, an Airbus A300, while it was flying its usual route over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, shortly after the flight departed its stopover location, Bandar Abbas International Airport. All 290 people on board were killed.
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On this day, 3 July 1988, the United States Navy shot down Iran Air flight 655, a civilian passenger plane with 290 people on board, all of whom were killed. The victims included 66 children, and an entire family of 16 who were on their way to a wedding in Dubai. The incident took place during the war between Iran and Iraq, which was led by Saddam Hussein and backed by the US. It followed a catalogue of errors, including the naval officer in charge of firing the missile aboard the USS Vincennes hitting the wrong key no fewer than 23 times before it was eventually fired. The US military then claimed that the Vincennes was rushing to defend a merchant vessel under attack from Iran when an aircraft outside the commercial air corridor was descending in "attack mode" towards the ship – which was false on all three counts. They also tried to claim the ship was in international waters, and naval officials even deleted an Iranian island from the map they showed to Congress. In fact it was in Iranian waters, in clear violation of international law. Meanwhile, the US media backed up the official line, with the New York Times apportioning blame to the pilot, Mohsen Rezaian, and Iran. In the aftermath, officers and crew of the Vincennes were welcomed home and decorated as heroes, receiving combat action ribbons and in one case a Commendation Medal for "heroic achievement" for "quickly and precisely complet[ing] the firing procedure." The Captain was later awarded the Legion of Merit for "exceptionally meritorious conduct as a commanding officer." Donations from the public to construct a monument honouring the USS Vincennes in Indiana also shot up following the incident, and the monument was constructed and dedicated the following year. If you value our social media posts, connect with us directly, independent of social media corporations, by joining our occasional email list: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/pages/sign-up https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=655304546642764&set=a.602588028581083&type=3
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History
July 3
July 3, 1775 - During the American Revolution, George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
July 3, 1976 - The raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda occurred as an Israeli commando unit rescued 103 hostages on a hijacked Air France airliner. The jet had been en route from Tel Aviv to Paris when it was hijacked by pro-Palestinian guerrillas. Three hostages, seven hijackers and twenty Ugandan soldiers were killed during the rescue.
July 3, 1988 - Iran Air Flight 655 was destroyed while flying over the Persian Gulf after the U.S. Navy Warship Vincennes fired two surface-to-air missiles, killing all 290 passengers aboard. A subsequent U.S. military inquiry cited stress related human failure for the mistaken identification of the civilian airbus as an enemy F-14 fighter jet.
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Events 7.3
324 – Battle of Adrianople: Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium.
987 – Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France until the French Revolution in 1792.
1035 – William the Conqueror becomes the Duke of Normandy, reigns until 1087.
1608 – Québec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain.
1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.
1767 – Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
1767 – Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded and the first edition is published.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: Iroquois allied to Britain kill 360 people in the Wyoming Valley massacre.
1819 – The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in the United States, opens.
1839 – The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today's Framingham State University, opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with three students.
1848 – Governor-General Peter von Scholten emancipates all remaining slaves in the Danish West Indies.
1849 – France invades the Roman Republic and restores the Papal States.
1852 – Congress establishes the United States' 2nd mint in San Francisco.
1863 – American Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates with Pickett's Charge.
1866 – Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgrätz, enabling Prussia to exclude Austria from German affairs.
1884 – Dow Jones & Company publishes its first stock average.
1886 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first purpose-built automobile.
1886 – The New-York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.
1890 – Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
1898 – A Spanish squadron, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, is defeated by an American squadron under William T. Sampson in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.
1913 – Confederate veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 reenact Pickett's Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they are met by the outstretched hands of friendship from Union survivors.
1938 – World speed record for a steam locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 125.88 miles per hour (202.58 km/h).
1938 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lights the eternal flame at Gettysburg Battlefield.
1940 – World War II: The Royal Navy attacks the French naval squadron in Algeria, to ensure that it will not fall under German control. Of the four French battleships present, one is sunk, two are damaged, and one escapes back to France.
1944 – World War II: The Minsk Offensive clears German troops from the city.
1952 – The Constitution of Puerto Rico is approved by the United States Congress.
1952 – The SS United States sets sail on her maiden voyage to Southampton. During the voyage, the ship takes the Blue Riband away from the RMS Queen Mary.
1967 – The Aden Emergency: The Battle of the Crater in which the British Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders retake the Crater district following the Arab Police mutiny.
1970 – The Troubles: The "Falls Curfew" begins in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1970 – Dan-Air Flight 1903 crashes into the Les Agudes mountain in the Montseny Massif near the village of Arbúcies in Catalonia, Spain, killing all 112 people aboard.
1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
1988 – United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
1988 – The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus.
1996 – British Prime Minister John Major announced the Stone of Scone would be returned to Scotland.
2013 – Egyptian coup d'état: President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi is overthrown by the military after four days of protests all over the country calling for Morsi's resignation, to which he did not respond. President of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt Adly Mansour is declared acting president.
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Demonstrators lie down on University Avenue [Toronto] today in a symbolic die-in to protest the U.S. missile attack on an Iranian jetliner that killed 290 people [Iran Air Flight 655]. Police arrested 12 protesters by the U.S. consulate. 1988 [TPL Archives]
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Hey remember during the Tanker War when the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger plan and killed 290 civilians including 66 children and not only did the United States never apologize or charge anyone with any sort of misdeed but the crew later received medals, including the captain who got a Legion of Merit?
Y’all remember that, right?
You study it in school?
Y’all keep in it mind every time the United States makes a claim from a moral high ground?
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The four-star general with a two-star mind
Okay, that headline is more euphonious than accurate, not to say meaningful, so here’s the gist of what I'm trying to say: Politico has a story up by Eliana Johnson claiming that Donald Trump held off bombing Iran on the basis of comments on Fox News by retired four star Jack Keane, to wit:
“Our viewers may have forgotten, but during the tanker war in the late ‘80s when Reagan did take some action, we actually made a mistake,” Keane said, referring to President Ronald Reagan. “We had a USS warship shoot down an Iranian airliner in Iranian airspace. Two-hundred ninety people killed. Sixty-six of them were children. And we took that for a Tomahawk F-14. That was clearly a mistake by the ship's crew in doing that. And we acknowledged that we made a horrific mistake.”
Eliana goes on to say that she has it on good authority that President Trump pronounced himself “spooked” by the story and held off on the bombing as a result. Well, speculating on actual events occurring in that maelstrom of ego, ignorance, and vanity that forever swirls in Donald Trump’s cranium is a mug’s game if ever there was one, but if the account is true we all certainly owe the general a solid, and a serious one at that.
However, I certainly won’t resist remarking that the general’s account of what actually went down back in the day isn't precisely le mot juste, and, because Eliana is silent as well, I will take it on myself to supply that mot juste. What happened was that the American warship, the U.S.S. Vincennes, was sailing in Iranian waters, in specific violation of its orders. Although it had notification of the Iranian Airlines flight, flight number 655, which was traveling in its regularly scheduled flight path about 20 minutes behind schedule, the crew of the Vincennes shot it down anyway. The Defense Department lied about the fact that the Vincennes was in Iranian waters, and later then Vice President George Bush gave a speech at the UN during which he claimed that the aircraft had been outside its flight path, which was another lie. The Reagan Administration refused to apologize, and eventually gave the commander of the Vincennes a certificate of commendation after the vessel completed its voyage. The U.S. continued to refuse to apologize during Bush’s single term as president, leaving it up to that damn hippie Bill Clinton to (slightly) cleanse America’s shameful record in the matter. Over at Slate, Fred Kaplan, who covered the story back in the day, has more on “one of the Pentagon’s most inexcusable disgraces.”
I’m glad that General Keane had the nerve to mention on Fox News that the U.S. murdered 66 children. And if Donald Trump flinched at the thought of murdering more children, well, I’m touched and impressed. But let’s not forget the full story, the real story, of “one of the Pentagon’s [and America’s] most inexcusable disgraces”—one of all too many, one might remark.
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Someone teach me not to immediately go to Wikipedia to read up on mass death events as soon as I hear about them.
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On this day, 3 July 1988, the United States Navy shot down Iran Air flight 655, a civilian passenger plane with 290 people on board, all of whom were killed. The victims included 66 children, and an entire family of 16 who were on their way to a wedding in Dubai. The incident took place during the war between Iran and Iraq, which was led by Saddam Hussein and backed by the US. It followed a catalogue of errors, including the naval officer in charge of firing the missile aboard the USS Vincennes hitting the wrong key no fewer than 23 times before it was eventually fired. The US military then claimed that the Vincennes was rushing to defend a merchant vessel under attack from Iran when an aircraft outside the commercial air corridor was descending in "attack mode" towards the ship – which was false on all three counts. They also tried to claim the ship was in international waters, and naval officials even deleted an Iranian island from the map they showed to Congress. In fact it was in Iranian waters, in clear violation of international law. Meanwhile, the US media backed up the official line, with the New York Times apportioning blame to the pilot, Mohsen Rezaian, and Iran. In the aftermath, officers and crew of the Vincennes were welcomed home and decorated as heroes, receiving combat action ribbons and in one case a Commendation Medal for "heroic achievement" for "quickly and precisely complet[ing] the firing procedure." The Captain was later awarded the Legion of Merit for "exceptionally meritorious conduct as a commanding officer." Donations from the public to construct a monument honouring the USS Vincennes in Indiana also shot up following the incident, and the monument was constructed and dedicated the following year. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.1819457841572691/2026043207580819/?type=3
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July History
July 3
July 3, 1775 - During the American Revolution, George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
July 3, 1976 - The raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda occurred as an Israeli commando unit rescued 103 hostages on a hijacked Air France airliner. The jet had been en route from Tel Aviv to Paris when it was hijacked by pro-Palestinian guerrillas. Three hostages, seven hijackers and twenty Ugandan soldiers were killed during the rescue.
July 3, 1988 - Iran Air Flight 655 was destroyed while flying over the Persian Gulf after the U.S. Navy Warship Vincennes fired two surface-to-air missiles, killing all 290 passengers aboard. A subsequent U.S. military inquiry cited stress related human failure for the mistaken identification of the civilian airbus as an enemy F-14 fighter jet.
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3rd of July, 1988 - Iran Air Flight 655
US Navy forces in Gulf waters which had illegally entered Iranian territorial waters engaged and shot down Iran Air Flight 655 outbound from Bandar Abbas to Dubai. All 290 people on board perished, of which 66 children.
A cover-up was immediately started by the US Navy. First, they announced an Iranian war plane had been shot down. Then, when it became clear the airplane was a civilian flight, they put the blame on the flight crew, stating that they had exited commercial flight corridors, had climbed or descended in a suspicious pattern, and more.
In reality, the pilots did everything right on that fatal routine flight.
The entire incident took place over Iranian territorial waters. This, too, was covered up for years.
Speaking one month after the incident, then-Vice President George H. W. Bush publicly declared:”I’ll never apologise for the United States of America. Ever. I don’t care what the facts are.”
The captain of the USS Vincennes, the vessel who show down Flight 655, was awared a Legion of Merit decoration “for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer ... from April 1987 to May 1989."
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Gibraltar Seizes Syria-Bound Tanker Thought to Be Carrying Iranian Oil
Spain said the vessel had been detained at the request of the United States
America pretends military plane in Iranian airspace is Iranian plane
source
The U.S. Killed 300 Iranian Citizens. Americans Don't Remember This—But Iranians Do
The war often spilled over into these narrow, strategic waters, where the guided-missile frigate USS Stark was bombed by a modified Iraqi warplane, killing 37 sailors in May 1987, and fellow warship USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine in April 1988.
The U.S. blamed Iran for the latter incident and conducted one of the largest naval operations since World War II, destroying a number of Iranian ships and killing dozens of sailors.
Less than two months later, on July 3, 1988, Aegis-armed guided-missile cruiser USS Vincennes opened fire at what its crew would later claim they thought to be an attacking Iranian F-14 fighter jet.
Instead, the aircraft was Iran Air Flight 655, a Dubai-bound civilian Airbus A300 with 290 people on board—all of whom were killed.
america’s really been trying to goad iran into war the last few days
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