page_title: List of airliner shootdown incidents
section_title: 1988: Iran Air Flight 655
hierarchical_section_title: List of airliner shootdown incidents / 1980s / 1988: Iran Air Flight 655
caption_attribution_description: Copy negative of the US Navy (USN) Ticonderoga Class Cruiser USS VINCENNES (CG 49) launching a Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) Medium Range (MR) from its deck. Location: BARKING SANDS, KAUAI, HAWAII (HI) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)
context_page_description: In the history of commercial aviation, there have been many airliner shootdown incidents which have been caused intentionally or by accident. This is a chronologically ordered list meant to document instances where airliners have been brought down by gunfire or missile attacks, including wartime incidents, rather than terrorist bombings or sabotage.
context_section_description: Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a commercial flight operated by Iran Air that regularly flew from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai, UAE. On 3 July 1988, toward the end of the Iran–Iraq War, the aircraft was shot down by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes which fired a RIM-66 Standard surface-to-air missile. The airplane was destroyed between Bandar Abbas and Dubai; all 290 passengers and crew died, including 66 children. USS Vincennes was in Iranian waters at the time of the attack. IR655, an Airbus A300 on an ascending flight path, was allegedly misidentified as a descending Iranian F-14.
caption: A missile departs the forward launcher of Vincennes during a 1987 exercise. The forward launcher was also used in the downing of Iran Air 655.
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