A Brief History
On January 8, 2020, Iranian air defense forces fired a surface to air missile at a civilian jetliner, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, a Boeing 737 carrying 176 passengers and crew, downing the jet and killing all those aboard.
Digging Deeper
Sadly, there have been too many instances where airliners have been shot down, either on purpose because they were thought to be violating some defense parameter or accidentally due to misidentification. Today, we look at a few of those incidents, incidents that make TSA inconveniences, surprise fees, cramped seats, and crying babies on planes seem like minor irritations!
In 1983, a Russian jet fighter shot down Korean Airlines Flight 007 over the Sea of Japan, claiming they believed the off-course Boeing 747 jumbo jet was a US intelligence gathering aircraft. All 269 people aboard the jetliner were killed, including a US Congressman.
In 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner over the Strait of Hormuz, mistakenly believing the plane to be an attacking Iranian warplane. All 290 people aboard were killed.
In 2014, Russian forces near Ukraine shot down Malaysian Flight 17, killing 80 children among the 298 people aboard the jet that were killed.
Finally, in 2024, the Russians were at it again, shooting down Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 over Kazakhstan, killing 38 innocent people having mistaken the plane for a Ukrainian aircraft or drone.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What other airliners being shot down are you aware of?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Mihajlovic, Mike. JETLINER DOWN: TOR-M1 MISSILE SYSTEM WHICH DOWNED UKRAINIAN FLIGHT PS752. Kindle, 2021.
Pearson, David. Kal 007-The Cover Up. Summit Books, 1987.
The featured image in this article, a map by Phoenix7777 showing Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752’s flight path, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
