Iran Air Flight 655
Airbus A300B2-203 | |
Operator | Iran Air |
---|---|
IATA flight No. | IR655 |
ICAO flight No. | IRA655 |
Call sign | IRANAIR 655 |
Registration | EP-IBU |
Flight origin | Mehrabad International Airport Tehran, Iran |
Stopover | Bandar Abbas International Airport Bandar Abbas, Iran |
Destination | Dubai International Airport Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
Occupants | 290 |
Passengers | 274 |
Crew | 16 |
Fatalities | 290 |
Survivors | 0 |
Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from
The reason for the downing has been disputed between the governments of the two countries. According to the
In 1996, during the
Background
In 1984, the
In response to the pattern of attacks on shipping, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a NOTAM on 8 September 1987, warning all Persian Gulf countries that civilian aircraft must monitor the 121.5 MHz VHF International Air Distress or the 243.0 MHz UHF Military Air Distress frequencies and be prepared to identify themselves to U.S. Navy ships and state their intentions;[23] Iran disputed the validity and accuracy of these notices.[24] On 29 April 1988, the U.S. expanded the scope of its navy's protection to all friendly neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf outside declared exclusion zones, which set the stage for the shootdown.[2]
The Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes was deployed to the area on short-notice following the NOTAMs. Commissioned four years earlier for US$1 billion (equivalent to US$3 billion in 2023), Vincennes was fitted with the then-new Aegis Combat System and had a crew of 400,[25] under the command of Captain William C. Rogers III at the time of the shootdown.[2] The Aegis system allowed the tracking and engagement of multiple aircraft simultaneously, allowing rapid information transfer between different stages of the crew.[25]
At its narrowest point the Strait of Hormuz is 21 nautical miles (39 km) wide,
Flight and shootdown
The plane, an Airbus A300 (registered as EP-IBU), was under the control of 37-year-old Captain Mohsen Rezaian (a veteran pilot with 7,000 hours of flight time), 31-year-old First Officer Kamran Teymouri, and 33-year-old Flight Engineer Mohammad Reza Amini.
Flight 655 left
On the morning of 3 July 1988, USS Vincennes was passing through the Strait of Hormuz returning from an escort duty.[2] A helicopter deployed from the cruiser reportedly received small arms fire from Iranian patrol vessels as it observed from high altitude. Vincennes moved to engage the Iranian vessels, in the course of which they all violated Omani waters and left after being challenged and ordered to leave by a Royal Navy of Oman warship.[29] Vincennes then pursued the Iranian gunboats, entering Iranian territorial waters. Two other U.S. Navy ships, USS Sides and USS Elmer Montgomery, were nearby. Admiral Crowe said the cruiser's helicopter was over international waters when the gunboats first fired upon it.[4][30]
Flight 655 was first detected by Vincennes immediately after takeoff when it received a short IFF Mode II, possibly leading the crew of Vincennes to believe the airliner was an Iranian F-14 Tomcat (capable of carrying unguided bombs since 1985)[31][failed verification] diving into an attack profile. Contrary to the accounts of various Vincennes crew members, the cruiser's Aegis Combat System recorded that the airliner was climbing at the time and its radio transmitter was squawking on only the Mode III civilian frequency, and not on the military Mode II.[32]
Since the USS Stark incident, in which an Iraqi aircraft attacked a US warship believing it to be hostile, all aircraft in the area had to monitor 121.5 MHz, the International Air Distress (IAD) radio frequency. A total of 10 attempts were made to warn the airliner, seven on the Military Air Distress (MAD) frequency, and three on the IAD frequency. There were no responses.[17]
With the aircraft not answering radio challenges and continuing towards Vincennes, the ship's crew commenced the process to engage it. The naval officer responsible for authorizing a missile launch, the watch's Anti-Air Warfare Coordinator (AAWC), pushed wrong buttons no fewer than five times in response to a system message to select a weapon. In the meantime, the officer in charge of firing missiles, the watch's Missile System Supervisor (MSS), pushed "REQUEST RADIATION ASSIGN" no fewer than 22 times, all without effect due to the AAWC not completing the appropriate process at his console. The AAWC finally selected the correct input at his console, allowing the MSS to again push "REQUEST RADIATION ASSIGN" and continue the procedure.[33]
At 10:24:22, with the aircraft at a range of 10 nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi), Vincennes fired two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles. The first missile intercepted the airliner at 10:24:43 at a range of 8 nautical miles (15 km; 9.2 mi), and the second missile intercepted the airliner shortly after.[33] The plane disintegrated immediately in three pieces (cockpit, wing section and the tail section) and soon crashed into the water. None of the 290 passengers and crew on board survived.[34] The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were never found.[35]
At the time the missiles were launched, the Vincennes was located at 26°30′47″N 56°00′57″E / 26.51306°N 56.01583°E, placing it within the twelve-nautical-mile (22 km; 14 mi) limit of Iranian territorial seas.[36] The location of Vincennes in Iranian territorial waters at the time of the incident was admitted by the U.S. government in legal briefs and publicly by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William J. Crowe, on Nightline.[4][37]
Nationalities of the victims
According to the documents Iran submitted to the International Court of Justice, the aircraft was carrying 290 people: 274 passengers and a crew of 16. Of these 290, 254 were Iranian, 13 were Emiratis, 10 were Indians, six were Pakistanis, six were Yugoslavs and one was an Italian.[38]
Nation | Passengers | Crew | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Iran | 238 | 16 | 254 |
United Arab Emirates | 13 | 0 | 13 |
India | 10 | 0 | 10 |
Pakistan | 6 | 0 | 6 |
Yugoslavia | 6 | 0 | 6 |
Italy | 1[39] | 0 | 1 |
Total | 274 | 16 | 290 |
U.S. government accounts
Pentagon officials initially said Vincennes had shot down an Iranian F-14, but issued a retraction within hours and confirmed Iranian reports that the target was instead a civilian Airbus.
This was admitted in a report by Admiral William Fogarty, entitled Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Downing of Iran Air Flight 655 on 3 July 1988 (the "Fogarty report"). An edited version of the Fogarty report is released to the public.[33] The Fogarty report stated, "The data from USS Vincennes' tapes, information from USS Sides and reliable intelligence information, corroborate the fact that [Iran Air Flight 655] was on a normal commercial air flight plan profile, in the assigned airway, squawking Mode III 6760, on a continuous ascent in altitude from takeoff at Bandar Abbas to shoot-down.".[42][43]
The Fogarty report also claimed, "Iran must share the responsibility for the tragedy by hazarding one of their civilian airliners by allowing it to fly a relatively low altitude air route in close proximity to hostilities that had been ongoing."[44]
When questioned in a 2000 BBC documentary, the U.S. government stated in a written answer that they believed the incident may have been caused by a simultaneous psychological condition amongst the eighteen bridge crew of Vincennes, called "scenario fulfillment", which is said to occur when persons are under pressure. In such a situation, the men will carry out a training scenario, believing it to be reality while ignoring sensory information that contradicts the scenario. In the case of this incident, the scenario was an attack by a lone military aircraft.[45]
Iranian government account
According to the Iranian government, the shootdown was an intentionally performed and unlawful act. Even if there was a mistaken identification, which Iran never accepted, it argues that this constituted negligence and recklessness amounting to an international crime, not an accident.[46]
In particular, Iran expressed skepticism about claims of misidentification, noting that the cruiser's advanced Aegis radar correctly tracked the flight and its Mode III beacon; two other U.S. warships in the area, Sides and Montgomery, also identified the aircraft as civilian; and the flight was well within a recognized international air corridor. It also noted that the crew of Vincennes were trained to handle simultaneous attacks by hundreds of enemy aircraft.[47] Iran found it more plausible that Vincennes "hankered for an opportunity to show its stuff".[48]
According to Iran, the U.S. had previously issued a
Iran pointed out that in the past "the United States has steadfastly condemned the shooting down of aircraft, whether civil or military, by the armed forces of another State" and cited El Al Flight 402, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114, and Korean Air Lines Flight 007, among other incidents.[54] Iran also noted that when Iraq attacked the USS Stark, the U.S. found Iraq fully responsible on the grounds that the Iraqi pilot "knew or should have known" he was attacking a U.S. warship.[55] Speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Ali Akbar Velayati, Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs, called the shootdown the "most inhuman military attack in the history of civil aviation", caused by a "reckless and incompetent naval force".[56]: 5–7
Independent sources
In 1989, prior to the public exposure of Vincennes' position inside Iranian waters on Nightline by Admiral William Crowe, Professor Andreas Lowenfeld of the editing board of the American Journal of International Law criticized the official U.S. position that the U.S. was not legally liable for the incident:[57][58]
I do not understand Maier's argument at all ... But the correct legal principle, I am clear, is not as Sofaer and Maier would have it—no legal liability to victims of airplane disasters without proof of fault beyond a reasonable doubt, and no fault in combat zones—but rather liability regardless of fault, so long as the cause is established, as it clearly was in the case of Iran Air 655, as in the case of Korean Air Lines 007. I would have hoped that those who spoke for the United States about the tragedy of July 3, 1988, from the President on down, would have recognized this principle, so essential for the safety of civil aviation, as other spokesmen for the United States and its allies have done when other states' military (whether or not on orders from on high) brought down civilian aircraft that may have strayed off course. ... That principle, it is clear, was breached by the United States in the case of Iran Air 655, and it follows that the United States is responsible. To say that is not to condemn the United States or even to find fault. It is simply to state that responsibility flows from the action itself.
Lowenfeld also pointed out that the amount of compensation paid for Iranian victims was one-tenth the amount demanded from Iraq for American dead aboard the USS Stark.[59]
One legal scholar noted in the
In an article published in Newsweek magazine on 13 July 1992, John Barry and Roger Charles argued that Rogers behaved recklessly and without due care.[4] The Newsweek article also accused the U.S. government of a cover-up but, on July 21, Admiral Crowe denied any knowledge:[30] An analysis 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 value placed on Aegis cruisers by the U.S. Navy had played a major part in the setting of a low threshold for opening fire.[61] Vincennes had been nicknamed "RoboCruiser" by crew members and other U.S. Navy ships, in reference to both its Aegis system and the supposed aggressive tendencies of its captain.[10][62]
The International Court of Justice case relating to "the Aerial Incident of July 3, 1988" (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America), was dropped on 22 February 1996 following settlement and reparations by the United States.[15]
Three years after the incident, Admiral Crowe admitted on American television show
Commander David Carlson, commanding officer of USS Sides, the warship stationed nearest to Vincennes at the time of the incident, is reported to have said that the destruction of the aircraft "marked the horrifying climax to Captain Rogers's aggressiveness, first seen four weeks ago".[64] His comment referred to incidents on 2 June, when Rogers had sailed Vincennes too close to an Iranian frigate undertaking a lawful search of a bulk carrier, launched a helicopter within two to three miles (3.2 to 4.8 km) of a small Iranian craft despite rules of engagement requiring a four-mile (6.4 km) separation, and opened fire on small Iranian military boats. Of those incidents, Carlson commented: "Why do you want an Aegis cruiser out there shooting up boats? It wasn't a smart thing to do." He said that Iranian forces he had encountered in the area a month prior to the incident were "pointedly non-threatening" and professional.[65] At the time of Rogers's announcement to higher command that he was going to shoot down the plane, Carlson is reported to have been thunderstruck: "I said to folks around me, 'Why, what the hell is he doing?' I went through the drill again. F-14. He's climbing. By now this damn thing is at 7,000 feet." Carlson thought the Vincennes might have more information and was unaware that Rogers had been wrongly informed that the plane was diving.[64] Carlson is reported to have written in the U.S. Naval Proceedings that he had "wondered aloud in disbelief" on hearing of Vincennes' intentions. In speculating on the "climate" that led up to the incident, Carlson stated that the Vincennes, shortly beforehand dubbed by officers aboard Sides as "RoboCruiser" for its aggressiveness, engaged in a pattern of aggressive behavior over the prior month because the crew of Vincennes "felt a need to prove the viability of Aegis in the Persian Gulf, and that they hankered for the opportunity to show their stuff."[66]
Radio communication
The official
It is likely that the crew were monitoring the civilian
Potential factors
This section is in prose. is available. (June 2023) |
This section needs additional citations for verification. (June 2023) |
- The Aegis System software at that time reused tracking numbers in its display, constituting a user interface design flaw. The Aegis software initially assigned the on-screen identifier TN4474 to Flight 655. Before Vincennes fired, the Aegis software switched the Flight 655 tracking number to TN4131 and recycled Flight 655's old tracking number of TN4474 to label a fighter jet 110 miles away. When the captain asked for a status on TN4474, he was told it was a fighter and descending.[71][72] Scientific American rated it as one of the worst user interface disasters.[73]
- A psychological evaluation of the crew, requested by Admiral Fogarty, concluded that stress and inexperience of the crew in warfare resulted in misjudgment and unconscious distortion of data, which played a significant role in the misinterpretation of the data of the Aegis System.[72]
- In the last minutes leading to shootdown, tactical information coordinator Leech reports loudly that Flight 655's altitude is declining, but all combat crew including lieutenant commander Scott Lustig (anti-air warefare coordinator) ignore to verify this information using data clearly shown on their computer systems in the combat information center. IR655 was never descending according to detailed data recorded by Vincennes.
- As Flight 655 takes off, an Iranian Air Force F-14 is also on the tarmac at Bandar Abbas. When aircraft identification supervisor Anderson hooks Flight 655 when it takes off, he leaves it hooked for almost 90 seconds by neglecting to move the ball tab off of Bandar Abbas. Though the hook moves towards the Vincennes, the system is still reading IFF signals from Bandar Abbas.
- The ship's commanding officer believes Iran 655 is an F-14 that is involved in a coordinated surface and air strike.
- As IR655 starts to ascend, Lieutenant Montford warns Captain Will Rogers multiple times regarding possible commercial aircraft, captain acknowledges that he has heard him but eventually ignores his warnings.
- The Vincennes transmits three radio warnings on the civil distress frequency in the very last minutes, but they fail to identify who exactly they are addressing. Its radio crew cite the aircraft's ground speed while Flight 655 is operating on airspeed. The plane's airspeed could have been 50 knots slower than the speed mentioned by the Vincennes.
- During its flight, Flight 655 transmits a unique squawk code that tells radars what flight it is. Had the Vincennes used this specific code when addressing the flight crew, the pilots could have immediately realized they were in a danger zone. However, the U.S. Navy does not train radio personnel to use this standard code when talking to civilian aircraft.
- Despite its complex technology, the ship does not have a radio tuned to specific civil air frequencies.
- IFF on the ship marks Iran Air 655 as Mode 3, a generic frequency that is insufficient to identify a plane as friend or foe.
- The ship's crew did not efficiently consult Petty Officer Andrew Anderson, who first picked up Flight 655 on radar and thought it might be a commercial aircraft. As he was searching in the navy's listing of commercial flights, he apparently missed Flight 655 because it was so dark."[74]
- An Iranian
- According to Capt. Richard McKenna (surface commander of Capt. Will Rogers), Vincennes was initially authorized to send a helicopter to investigate the situation with the gun boats. Later on when he realizes that Vincennes had turned north and swapped positions with Montgomery, he commanded Vincennes to leave the helicopter in place and return immediately. According to an interview after his retirement, Capt. McKenna believed that he felt the situation was not initially out of control and maybe Vincennes was looking for trouble. He said "my own personal opinion is it really did feel that they were looking for action when they went to see the Elmer Montgomery, um my own feeling is that the situation was not out of control, it was really my call and yet even though they were assigned another station, they took it upon themselves to be there and to that extent I feel that you know, I mean that's that's where the general feeling and not not just my own, comes that maybe they were looking for trouble"[76]
- The psychology and mindset after engaging in a battle with Iranian gunboats. There are claims that Vincennes was engaged in an operation using a decoy cargo ship to lure Iranian gunboats to a fight.[77] These claims were denied by Fogarty in Hearing Before The Investigation Subcommittee and The Defense Policy Panel of The Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session, 21 July 1992. Also, the initial claims of Vincennes being called for help by a cargo ship attacked by Iranian gunboats have been ruled out.[77] That leads to claims that the Iranian gunboats were provoked by helicopters inside Iranian waters, not the other way around.[78]
Criticism of U.S. media coverage
In 1991, political scientist
Aftermath
The event sparked an intense international controversy, with Iran condemning the attack. In mid-July 1988, Iranian Foreign Minister
Inside Iran, this shootdown was perceived as a purposeful attack by the United States, signalling that the U.S. was about to enter into a direct war against Iran on the side of Iraq.[12]
In February 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay Iran US$131.8 million in settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice relating to this incident, together with other earlier claims before the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal.[15] US$61.8 million of the claim was in compensation for the 248 Iranians killed in the shootdown: $300,000 per wage-earning victim and $150,000 per non-wage-earner.[87]
The U.S. government issued notes of regret for the loss of human lives, but never formally apologized or acknowledged wrongdoing.[16] On 5 July 1988 President Ronald Reagan expressed regret; when directly asked if he considered the statement an apology, Reagan replied, "Yes."[88] George H. W. Bush, then Vice President of the United States, commented on another occasion, in a televised recording, while addressing a group of Republican ethnic leaders during the 1988 presidential campaign: "I will never apologize for the United States—I don't care what the facts are ... I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy."[89] The quote, although unrelated to the downing of the Iranian airliner and not in any official capacity, has been mistakenly attributed as such.[90][91] Bush used the phrase frequently[92] during the 1988 presidential election campaign and promised to "never apologize for the United States" months prior to the July 1988 shoot-down[93] and as early as January 1988.[94][95]
The incident overshadowed
Post-tour of duty medals
Despite the mistakes made in the downing of the plane, the crew of USS Vincennes were awarded
Maps
In popular culture
The events of Flight 655 were featured in "Mistaken Identity", a season 3 (2005) episode of the Canadian TV series Mayday (called Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the U.S., and Air Crash Investigation in the UK).[76]
In Raymond Khoury's book The Templar Salvation the shooting down is the key motivation for the Iranian protagonist.
In Kaveh Akbar's debut novel Martyr! the shooting down is an important part of the protagonist's life and motivation.
See also
- List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
- List of airliner shootdown incidents
- Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, commercial aircraft shot down by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Iran) in 2020
- Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
- Korean Air Lines Flight 007
- Korean Air Lines Flight 902
Notes
- S2CID 53817259.. That article examines what it describes "as contrasting news frames employed by several important U.S. media outlets" in covering the downings of the KAL-007 and Iran Air 655 airline flights.
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- ^ "The quote of the Perspectives/Overheard section of Newsweek (15 August 1988) p. 15". Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
- ^ "Essay: Rally Round the Flag, Boys". Time. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
- ^ Boyd, Gerald M. (9 November 1988). "George Herbert Walker Bush; A Victor Free to Set His Own Course". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 6 February 2008.
- ^ Bush, a Cautious Front-Runner Again, Avoids Attacks and Personal Campaigning Archived 8 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Gerald M. Boyd, Special to the New York Times. The New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York: 27 February 1988. P. 1.8
- ^ Bush Sidesteps Campaign Talk in the Bluffs; [Iowa Edition] C. David Kotok. Omaha World-Herald. Omaha, Neb.: 30 January 1988. p. 1.
- ^ David Hoffman (30 October 1988). "Nominees' Beliefs Grounded in 2 Views of America; Bush Is Motivated By Pragmatism, Noblesse Oblige". The Washington Post (Final ed.). p. a.01.
- ^ "The forgotten story of Iran Air Flight 655". The Washington Post. 16 October 2013. Archived from the original on 4 July 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
- ^ "PAN AM Flight 103" (PDF). Defense Intelligence Agency, DOI 910200, page 49/50 (Pages 7 and 8 in PDF document, see also pp. 111ff). Retrieved 12 January 2010.
- ^ Fisher, Max (16 October 2013). "The forgotten story of Iran Air Flight 655". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
- ^ Moore, Molly (23 April 1990). "2 Vincennes Officers get Medals". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 28 June 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
- ^ "Medals Go To Top Officers in Charge of Vincennes". The Orlando Sentinel. 24 April 1990. Archived from the original on 31 August 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ Ahmadi, Mojtaba. "Legion of Merit awarded to the one who killed 290 passengers of Iran Air flight 655". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
- References
- Islamic Republic of Iran (24 July 1990). "Aerial Incident of 3 July 1988 (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America) – Iranian submission: Part IV B, The shooting down of flight IR 655" (PDF). International Court of Justice. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- Fogarty, William M., (1988) "Investigation report: Formal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 on July 3, 1988", United States Department of Defense, ASIN: B00071EGY8
Additional resources
- "Nunn Wants to Reopen Inquiry into Vincennes' Gulf Location". Washington Times, 4 July 1992. Abstract: Senator Sam Nunn called on the Pentagon to probe allegations that the Navy "deliberately misled Congress" about the location of USS Vincennes when it shot down an Iranian civilian airliner four years ago.
- ISBN 1-84115-007-X
- Marian Nash Leich, "Denial of Liability: Ex Gratia Compensation on a Humanitarian Basis" American Journal of International Law Vol. 83 p. 319 (1989)
- USS Vincennes Incident; Dan Craig, Dan Morales, Mike Oliver; M.I.T. Aeronautics & Astronautics, Spring 2004
- "Assumed Hostile" An academic case study by Pho H. Huynh, Summer 2003
Further reading
- International Court of Justice, (2001), Case Concerning the Aerial Incident of July 3, 1988: v. 1: Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America, United Nations, ISBN 92-1-070845-8
- Report of ICAO fact-finding investigation (pdf) (Report). Montreal: International Civil Aviation Organization. 1988.
- In order to access the report, press Query in the header followed by Execute. Enter "01/01/1988" as value one and "01/01/1989" as value two and press OK. Press the view icon to see the report.
- Rochlin, Gene I. (1997). Trapped in the Net: The Unanticipated Consequences of Computerization. US: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01080-3.
- Rogers, Sharon, (1992) Storm Center: The USS Vincennes and Iran Air Flight 655: A Personal Account of Tragedy and Terrorism, U.S. Naval Institute Press, ISBN 1-55750-727-9
- Wise, Harold Lee (2007). Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf 1987–88. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-970-5.
External links
External images | |
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Pre-accident picture of aircraft at Planepictures.net | |
Pre-accident picture of aircraft at the Aviation Safety Network |
- Media related to Iran Air Flight 655 at Wikimedia Commons
- Works related to Investigation Report—Iran Air Flight 655 at Wikisource