Desk Report,
Why did the US shoot down an Iranian plane with 290 people on board?
An Iran Air passenger plane crashed in the sky of Iran on July 3, 1988. The plane broke into pieces in mid-air after being hit by a missile fired from a US warship. All 290 people on board were killed. It is known in history as the ‘Flight 655 tragedy’. Today is the anniversary of that incident. Today, Prothom Alo has organized this event to discuss the incident. Bangladesh
Why did the US shoot down an Iranian plane with 290 people on board?
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Why did the US shoot down an Iranian plane with 290 people on board?
An Iran Air passenger plane crashed in the sky of Iran on July 3, 1988. The plane was shot down in mid-air by a missile fired from a US warship. All 290 people on board were killed. It is known in history as the ‘Flight 655 tragedy’. Today is the anniversary of that incident. Today, Prothom Alo has organized this event to commemorate the incident—
Anindya Saimum
Dhaka
Updated: 03 July 2025, 14:37
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Iranian children commemorate the victims with flowers at the port of Bandar Abbas, Iran, on the anniversary of the Flight 655 tragedy. File photo: AFP
A beautiful sunny morning. A bright blue sky. A gentle breeze blowing over the Persian Gulf. A passenger plane took off in such beautiful weather. There were 274 domestic and foreign passengers and 16 crew members on board. Who would have thought that this would be the last flight of these 290 people. In an instant, a missile would hit the plane. It would break into pieces in mid-air, who would have thought that?
The incident took place on this day in 1988, i.e. July 3. The scene was the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Iran Air Flight 655 took off from Bandar Abbas International Airport in Iran, near the Strait of Hormuz, in beautiful weather. The Airbus A-300 passenger plane was bound for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. With a total of 290 passengers on board. After that, the plane suffered one of the biggest tragedies in the world’s aviation sector.
The clock was 10:47 am. Flight 655 took off from Bandar Abbas International Airport in Iran, half an hour after the scheduled time. At that time, the US warship USS Vincennes was deployed in the Strait of Hormuz for security. From there, two missiles were fired at the aircraft in quick succession.
