Iran Press/Iran news: Intelligence indicates that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine on July 17, 2014, making it one of the highest-casualty airliner shoot-downs in the history of aviation. The plane was carrying 298 people. But it's hardly the first. Events like this — though usually much smaller in scale — have occurred about two dozen times. Many instances were part of ongoing wars, such as Nazi Germany's shoot-down of a British Overseas Airways Corporation flight from Lisbon to London in 1943, or Zimbabwean rebels' shoot-downs of two Air Rhodesia flights in 1978 and 1979.
There are some examples:
Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114
Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (LN 114) was a regularly scheduled flight from Tripoli to Cairo via Benghazi. In 1973 a Boeing 727-200 that was serving this flight was shot down by Israeli fighter jets.
On 21 February 1973, the aircraft left Tripoli and flew to Benghazi. After taking off from Benghazi, it became lost because of a combination of bad weather and equipment failure over northern Egypt.
It entered airspace over the Sinai Peninsula (then occupied by Israel), where it was intercepted by two Israeli F-4 Phantom IIs and was shot down. Of the 113 people on board, there were five survivors, including the co-pilot.
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (also known as KAL007 and KE007) was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage, Alaska. On 1 September 1983, the South Korean airliner servicing the flight was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor.
The Boeing 747 airliner was en route from Anchorage to Seoul, but deviated from its original planned route and flew through Soviet prohibited airspace about the time of a US aerial reconnaissance mission.
The Soviet Air Forces treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding US spy plane, and destroyed it with air-to-air missiles, after firing warning shots which were likely not seen by the KAL pilots.
The Korean airliner eventually crashed in the sea near Moneron Island west of Sakhalin in the Sea of Japan.
Su-15
All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed, including Larry McDonald, a United States Representative from Georgia.
The Soviets found the wreckage under the sea on September 15 and found the flight recorders in October, but this information was kept secret until 1993.
Iran Air Flight 655
Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas that was shot down on 3 July 1988 by an SM-2MR surface-to-air missile fired from USS Vincennes, a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy.
The aircraft, an Airbus A300, was destroyed and all 290 people on board were killed.
Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down on 3 July 1988 by a missile fired from USS Vincennes
The jet was hit while flying over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, shortly after departing Bandar Abbas International Airport, the flight's stopover location.
Siberia Airlines Flight 1812
Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 was a commercial flight shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force over the Black Sea on 4 October 2001, en route from Tel Aviv, Israel to Novosibirsk, Russia. The aircraft, a Soviet-made Tupolev Tu-154, carried an estimated 66 passengers and 12 crew members. Most of the passengers were Israelis visiting relatives in Russia.
There were no survivors. The crash site is about 190 km west-southwest of the Black Sea resort of Sochi and 140 km north of the Turkish coastal town of Fatsa and 350 km south-southeast of Feodosiya in Crimea.
The accident took place at the time of the combat missile launches during the joint Ukrainian-Russian military air defense exercises.
The exercises were held at the Russian-controlled training ground of the 31st Russian Black Sea Fleet Research center on Opuk cape near the city of Kerch (Crimea).
Ukraine eventually admitted that it might have caused the crash, probably by an errant S-200 missile fired by its armed forces.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down on 17 July 2014 while flying over eastern Ukraine.
All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed Contact with the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was lost when it was about 50 km (31 mi) from the Ukraine–Russia border and wreckage of the aircraft fell near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, 40 km (25 mi) from the border.
The shoot-down occurred in the War in Donbass, during the Battle of Shakhtarsk, in an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels. The crash was Malaysia Airlines' second aircraft loss during 2014 after the disappearance of Flight 370 on 8 March.
Read more:
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