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Accident A300 over the Persian Gulf
This plane crash occurred on July 3, 1988. Iran Air airliner made a regular passenger flight on the route Tehran — Bandar Abbas — Dubai. Just a few minutes after taking off from the strip, flying over the Persian Gulf, the airliner was shot down by a missile launched from the US Navy Vincennes cruiser. Killed all 290 people on board the aircraft: of which 16 crew members and 274 passengers, among whom were 65 children. After the crash, the U.S. government said the Iranian plane was mistakenly identified as Iran’s F-14BF. The Iranian government, however, argues that there can be no mistake and the cruiser intentionally attacked a civilian plane.
