A Brief History
On September 17, 2018, Syrian air defense units accidentally shot down an allied Russian IL-20, a big turbo-prop airplane used as an airliner for civilian use and for electronic reconnaissance by the military.
Digging Deeper
Syria had suffered a series of missile and fighter plane attacks by Israel, and when the Russian plane appeared on their radar scopes, they promptly shot down the big plane, killing all 15 on board. Instead of blaming Syria, Russia claimed the Israeli fighter planes had hidden behind the larger Russian plane, resulting in the tragedy.
Sometimes military operations result in what is known as “friendly fire,” but we contend such fire is anything but friendly!
Another aerial friendly fire case occurred in 1941 during and right after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, 12 US B-17 bombers were shot at by US forces, mistaking them for more Japanese raiders, destroying 2 of the bombers.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What other cases of aerial friendly fire can you think of?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Borshchevskaya, Anna. Putin’s War in Syria: Russian Foreign Policy and the Price of America’s Absence. I.B. Tauris, 2021.
Snook, Scott. Friendly Fire: The Accidental Shootdown of U.S. Black Hawks over Northern Iraq. Princeton University Press, 2002.
