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Iran Air Flight 655 is an Iran Air civilian 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 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 on board died.〔Nancy J. Cook, ''Stories of Modern Technology Failures and Cognitive Engineering Successes'', CRC Press, 2007, PP77.〕 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.〔Paul Pillar, ('Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and Iran Air Flight 655 ,' ) The National Interest 24 July 2014.:'The heavy coverage by U.S. media of the downing last week of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over the rebellious portion of eastern Ukraine has made remarkably little reference to the prior event that most resembles it: the shooting down with a missile by the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes of Iran Air Flight 655 on July 3, 1988, killing all 290 persons aboard.'〕〔Noam Chomsky,('Outrage,' ) Z Magazine August 24, 2014:'There was little reaction at the time: no outrage, no desperate search for victims, no passionate denunciations of those responsible, no eloquent laments by the U.S. Ambassador to the UN about the “immense and heart-wrenching loss” when the airliner was downed. Iranian condemnations were occasionally noted, but dismissed as “boilerplate attacks on the United States” (Philip Shenon, New York Times).'〕 According to the Iranian government, ''Vincennes'' negligently shot down the civilian aircraft: the airliner was making IFF squawks in Mode III (not Mode II used by Iranian military planes), a signal that identified it as a civilian craft.〔(Shot Down Malaysian Airlines Flight Joins Few Others. - Business Insider )〕 The event generated a great deal of criticism of the United States amongst those who were able to learn of it. Some analysts blamed the captain of ''Vincennes'', who had entered Iran's waters, for reckless and aggressive behavior in a tense and dangerous environment.〔〔 The United States government did not formally apologize to Iran.〔The Iran-Iraq War: The Politics of Aggression. By Farhang Rajaee. University Press of Florida, 1993〕 In 1996, the United States and Iran reached a settlement at the International Court of Justice which included the statement "...the United States recognized the aerial incident of 3 July 1988 as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret over the loss of lives caused by the incident...". As part of the settlement, the United States did not admit legal liability but agreed to pay on an ''ex gratia'' basis US$61.8 million, amounting to $213,103.45 per passenger, in compensation to the families of the Iranian victims. Iran Air continues to use flight number 655 on the Tehran to Dubai route as a memorial to the victims. This event ranks eighth among the deadliest disasters in aviation history; the incident retains the highest death toll of any aviation incident in the Persian Gulf. ==Background== In 1984 the war between Iraq and Iran had expanded to include air attacks against oil tankers and merchant shipping of neighboring countries, some of whom were providing aid to Iraq by shipping Iraqi oil. The Flight 655 incident occurred a year after the Iraqi Air Force attack on the U.S. Navy guided-missile frigate on 17 May 1987, which killed 37 American sailors. U.S. naval forces had also exchanged gunfire with Iranian gunboats in late 1987, and the U.S. Navy guided-missile frigate had struck an Iranian sea mine in April 1988. Two months before the incident the US had engaged in Operation Praying Mantis, resulting in the sinking of the Iranian frigate ''Sahand''. Tensions were therefore high in the Strait of Hormuz at the time of the incident with Flight 655. On 29 April 1988 the U.S. expanded the scope of its navy's protection to all friendly neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf outside declared exclusion zones, setting the stage for the shoot-down incident. At about the same time, was rushed to the area on a short-notice deployment, as a result of high-level decisions, to compensate for the lack of AWACS coverage, which was hampering U.S. monitoring of the southern Persian Gulf. ''Vincennes'', fitted with the then-new Aegis Combat System and under the command of Captain William C. Rogers III,〔 departed San Diego on 25 April 1988 and arrived in Bahrain on 29 May 1988. As the Strait of Hormuz at its narrowest is just wide, in order to traverse the strait, ships must stay within sea lanes that pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of customary Law of the Sea.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Encyclopedia of Earth )〕 It is therefore normal for ships, including warships, entering or leaving the Persian Gulf to transit Iranian territorial waters. During the Iran–Iraq War the Iranian forces frequently boarded and inspected neutral cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz in search of contraband destined for Iraq. While legal under international law, these inspections added to the tensions in the area.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Iran Air Flight 655」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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