Today marks 34 years since the shootdown of Iran Air flight 655 on July 3rd, 1988. The incident involved a scheduled service bound for Dubai, which was operated by an Airbus A300 with close to 300 passengers and crew onboard. Let's take a closer look at how the shootdown, whose reasons remain disputed today, played out.

The flight and aircraft in question

Iran Air flight 655 was a scheduled international service that originated at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport (THR). At the time, this was the Iranian capital's primary airport, but it has since taken on a largely domestic role following the opening of Imam Khomeini International (IKA) in the mid-2000s. The flight's destination was the key Middle Eastern hub of Dubai International (DXB) in the UAE.

The service also had a scheduled stop en route, at Iran's Bandar Abbas International Airport (BND). The first leg of the flight passed without incident, and it arrived there at around 08:40 local time, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

By the time flight 655 left Bandar Abbas, at 10:17, it had a total of 290 people onboard. This figure comprised 274 passengers and 16 members of crew. The aircraft operating the flight was EP-IBU, an Airbus A300 that, according to ATDB.aero, had joined Iran Air as a brand-new aircraft in April 1982, a month after first flying.

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Iran Air still flies examples of the Airbus A300 today. Photo: Khashayar Talebzadeh via Wikimedia Commons

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Disaster over the Gulf

As established, Iran Air flight 655 left Bandar Abbas at 10:17 local time, departing on a 210-degree heading in the direction of the airport's runway. With the flight scheduled to take just 28 minutes, air traffic control instructed it to climb to a cruising altitude of just 14,000 feet after departure. It was cleared to fly to Dubai via an aerial corridor known as A59, which was around 20 miles (32 km) wide.

However, just seven minutes after departing Bandar Abbas, at 10:24 local time, the Airbus A300 operating Iran Air flight 655 was struck by a surface-to-air missile, having climbed through 12,000 feet. This was one of two fired at the jet by the USS Vincennes, a guided-missile cruiser boat operated by the US Navy.

The force of the missile's impact caused the aircraft to break apart in mid-air, with its wreckage falling into the sea below. The incident resulted in the deaths of all 290 people onboard, and the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorders were never found. This begged the question as to why the US Navy would shoot down a civilian airliner, a debate that remains disputed today.

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The USS Vincennes was commissioned in July 1985. Photo: US Navy via Wikimedia Commons

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Differing accounts

The US Navy claimed to have launched the attack on Iran Air flight 655 on the grounds that the A300 had been identified as a hostile F-14 fighter jet. It reportedly only fired the missiles after having attempted to contact the aircraft. In any case, the ship was found to have been within Iranian waters at the time of the attack.

Iran argued that, due to this, the Vincennes had no right to shoot anything in its airspace not following an attack profile, regardless of the aircraft type. The country also refused to accept that the shootdown was a case of mistaken identity.

Instead, Iran deemed the attack to be intentional and unlawful, even going as far as to state that the negligence involved constituted a crime. The US Government never formally apologized, but did pay the victims' families $61.8 million.

Source: Aviation Safety Network