Iran Air Flight 655

Iran Air Flight 655

A similar A300B2-200 registered EP-IBT
Shootdown summary
Date	3 July 1988
Summary	Shot down by USS Vincennes
Site	Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf
Passengers	274
Crew	16
Fatalities	290 (all)
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Airbus A300B2-203
Operator	Iran Air
Registration	EP-IBU
Flight origin	Mehrabad International Airport Tehran, Iran
Stopover	Bandar Abbas Int'l Airport Bandar Abbas, Iran
Destination	Dubai International Airport Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Iran Air Flight 655 was an Iran Air passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai. On 3 July 1988, the aircraft operating on this route was shot down by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes under the command of William C. Rogers III. The incident took place in Iranian airspace, over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and on the flight's usual flight path. The aircraft, an Airbus A300 B2-203, was destroyed by SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles fired from Vincennes. All 290 people on board died. The cruiser Vincennes had entered Iranian territorial waters after one of its helicopters drew warning fire from Iranian speedboats operating within Iranian territorial limits.

According to the United States government, the crew incorrectly identified the Iranian Airbus A300 as an attacking F-14A Tomcat fighter, a plane made in the United States and operated at that time by only two forces worldwide, the United States Navy and the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force. While the Iranian F-14s had been supplied by manufacturer Grumman in an air-to-air configuration only in the 1970s, the crew of Vincennes had been briefed when entering the region that the Iranian F-14s carried unguided bombs as well as Maverick missiles and unguided rockets. The Vincennes crew made ten attempts to contact the crew of the flight on military and civilian radio frequencies, but received no response. The International Civil Aviation Organization said that the flight crew should have been monitoring the civilian frequency.