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N0KFQ > TODAY 03.07.15 16:32l 31 Lines 1279 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 60424_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jul 3
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150703/1430Z 60424@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1988
U.S. warship downs Iranian passenger jet
In the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes shoots down
an Iranian passenger jet that it mistakes for a hostile Iranian
fighter aircraft. Two missiles were fired from the American
warship-the aircraft was hit, and all 290 people aboard were
killed. The attack came near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, when
U.S. vessels were in the gulf defending Kuwaiti oil tankers.
Minutes before Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down, the Vincennes
had engaged Iranian gunboats that shot at its helicopter.
Iran called the downing of the aircraft a "barbaric massacre,"
but U.S. officials defended the action, claiming that the
aircraft was outside the commercial jet flight corridor, flying
at only 7,800 feet, and was on a descent toward the Vincennes.
However, one month later, U.S. authorities acknowledged that the
airbus was in the commercial flight corridor, flying at 12,000
feet, and not descending. The U.S. Navy report blamed crew error
caused by psychological stress on men who were in combat for the
first time. In 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay $62 million in
damages to the families of the Iranians killed in the attack.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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