In 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 was tragically shot down by the USS Vincennes over the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in the deaths of all 290 passengers.
Photo : AP
One of the deadliest aviation tragedies of the late 20th century unfolded over theStrait of Hormuz in 1988, not by accident, but in the fog of war and miscalculation. On July 3 that year,Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian passenger jet, was shot down by the USS Vincennes, a US Navy guided-missile cruiser, killing all 290 people on board, including 66 children.
The Airbus A300 had taken off from Bandar Abbas and was headed to Dubai on a routine commercial route. It was flying within a designated civilian corridor and had transmitted its identity. Despite this, the crew of the Vincennes, operating in a tense combat environment during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq War, mistook the aircraft for an incoming Iranian F-14 fighter jet.
In 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655.
290 people.
66 of them were children.
A civilian airliner, flying a scheduled commercial route, broadcasting its identification codes, operating within Iranian airspace, was destroyed by a missile fired by an American…
— Sony Thăng (@nxt888) April 5, 2026
US naval forces were heavily deployed in the Persian Gulf at the time to protect shipping lanes, as the region witnessed frequent clashes. On the day of the incident, the Vincennes was engaged in a confrontation with Iranian gunboats when the aircraft appeared on radar.
Perceiving it as a threat and citing a lack of clear response to warnings, commanding officer William C. Rogers III ordered the launch of two surface-to-air missiles. The aircraft was struck mid-flight and crashed into the sea.
Washington described the incident as a tragic error caused by misidentification in a high-pressure combat situation, maintaining that the crew acted in self-defence. Then US President Ronald Reagan called it a “terrible human tragedy,” while defending the ship’s actions as necessary for protection.
Tehran, however, condemned the strike as deliberate and unjustified, calling it a crime against humanity.