Airbus shot down over Persian Gulf...

Twenty-two years ago today - 3 July 1988 - a passenger airliner with 290 people aboard was shot down over the Persian Gulf by a military warship. Two years later, the commander of that warship was given one of his country's highest decorations.

That flight was Iran Air flight 655, en route to Dubai from Tehran. The warship was the USS Vincennes, a U.S. Navy Ticonderoga class Aegis guided missile cruiser equipped with highly sophisticated radar and weaponry. The allegation is that the cruiser "mistook" the Airbus for an F-14 (which doesn't speak well of the crew's ability to actually use their radar), and that the Iranian pilot ignored warnings. However, those warnings were only broadcast on emergency radio frequencies, not air traffic control frequencies, and it's probable he didn't even realize they were meant for him. The Italian navy and another US warship, the frigate Sides, confirmed that the plane was climbing - not diving to attack - at the time of the missile strike, all of which adds to the difficulty of believing that this was indeed a "mistake". That the Vincennes had been attacked (if that's the right word) by motorboats (there's not even a consensus as to whether the cruiser or the motorboats began that incident) earlier can be read as support for either argument - was the crew jumpy, nervous, shooting at shadows? or pissed off and eager to throw their weight around?

But the bottom line is that the US, in the person of one of its warships, shot down a civilian airliner that was doing nothing out of the ordinary. And later decorated the captain who'd done it. And still later wonders why "those people" don't like us...