Disir
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Three decades ago, a perfect storm of miscommunication, miscalculation, and human error in the heat of battle caused the United States to make a mistake similar to the one Iran just did.
The Jan. 8 Iranian shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger flight shortly after takeoff from Tehran Airport was not the first time that U.S.-Iranian tensions had resulted in a major commercial airline tragedy. On July 3, 1988, William C. Rogers III, the commander of the USS Vincennes, ordered the downing of an Iranian passenger plane over the Strait of Hormuz, killing 290 people from six nations. He thought it was an F-14 fighter jet intent on attacking the U.S. naval vessel.
As part of our Document of the Week series, Foreign Policy is posting the U.S. military investigation into the accident, along with letters from top U.S. military brass defending the commander’s action as justified as a result of the fog of war. The documents—marked secret—were obtained by the Black Vault, a repository of declassified U.S. government documents founded by John E. Greenewald Jr. through Freedom of Information Act requests.
Anatomy of an Accidental Shootdown
There is some interesting information.
The Jan. 8 Iranian shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger flight shortly after takeoff from Tehran Airport was not the first time that U.S.-Iranian tensions had resulted in a major commercial airline tragedy. On July 3, 1988, William C. Rogers III, the commander of the USS Vincennes, ordered the downing of an Iranian passenger plane over the Strait of Hormuz, killing 290 people from six nations. He thought it was an F-14 fighter jet intent on attacking the U.S. naval vessel.
As part of our Document of the Week series, Foreign Policy is posting the U.S. military investigation into the accident, along with letters from top U.S. military brass defending the commander’s action as justified as a result of the fog of war. The documents—marked secret—were obtained by the Black Vault, a repository of declassified U.S. government documents founded by John E. Greenewald Jr. through Freedom of Information Act requests.
Anatomy of an Accidental Shootdown
There is some interesting information.
