In this horrific incident which took place on 3 July 1988 over Persian Gulf waters, an Airbus A300 B2-203 of Iran Air Flight 655 from Tehran to Dubai was shot down by 2 SM-2MR surface-to-air guided missiles fired from Vincennes. The airplane was completely destroyed as all 290 passengers and crew on board were killed.
Pages 278 and 279 of ‘Fall From Glory’ describe the event as follows:
“On the cruiser, Lieutenant Commander Scott Lustig, the tactical commander for air warfare, caucused which several of the raider operators who are concerned about the approaching target. One of the officers had the Aegis system query the commercial airliners transponder to determine if it was friend or foe. The return signal indicated that it was a commericial flight. But when he scanned a printed listing of scheduled commercial flights, he somehow missed Iran air flight 655.”
“Lustig issued an order to warn the incoming aircraft: "Unidentified aircraft... You are approaching a United States naval warship in international waters." There was no response. In the combat information center, Lieutenant William Montford was standing behind Rogers, monitoring the circuits and writing down the timeline of events: Iranian fighter you are steering into danger and are subject to United States naval defensive measures...”
Bewilderingly, the attack was launched by the order of the commander Rogers in Iranian airspace, over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and on the flight's usual flight path. It caused the death of 290 people including 66 children, 16 crew and 36 non-Iranian passengers.
The world and Iranians in particular will never forget the inhumane statement of George Bush on this event: “I'll never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what the facts are, since America right or wrong is the right-headed attitude of every patriotic God-fearing American.”

Source: Iran Book News Agency (IBNA)



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