The tragic crash of a Boeing 737 Ukrainian airliner early Wednesday which happened amid Iran's missile strikes against US military bases and the human error that resulted from the region’s security condition and US warfare, unfortunately, led to the martyrdom of a host of dear compatriots and loss of lives of a number of foreign nationals.
The General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces released a statement early on Saturday noting that the cause of the Ukrainian passenger plane crash has been human error in an air defense base, offering condolences to the family of victims and expressing apologies over the human error.
Here is a recap of other planes hit by missiles over the past four decades.
July 17, 2014: Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam.
All 298 people on board the Boeing 777 were killed, including 193 Dutch nationals.
The Kyiv authorities and separatist pro-Russian rebels, who are battling for control of eastern Ukraine, accused each other of firing the missile that hit the flight.
March 23, 2007: An Ilyushin II-76 cargo aircraft belonging to a Belarusian airliner was shot down by a rocket shortly after takeoff from the Somalian capital, Mogadishu, killing 11 people.
The plane was transporting Belarusian engineers and technicians who had traveled to the country to repair another plane hit by a missile two weeks earlier.
October 4, 2001: 78 people, mostly Israelis, were killed when their Siberia Airlines Russian Tupolev-154, flying from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, exploded in mid-flight over the Black Sea.
The crash happened less than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the Crimean coast.
A week later Kyiv admitted that the disaster was due to the accidental firing of a Ukrainian missile.
July 3, 1988: An Airbus A-300 belonging to Iran Air, flying from Bandar Abbas in Iran to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, was shot down in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf shortly after takeoff by two missiles fired from a frigate, USS Vincennes, patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.
The 290 passengers on board were killed, including 66 children.
Although the US paid Iran $101.8m in compensation for the victims it did not admit legal liability or formally apologize to Iran for the tragedy. The US even honored and awarded the American commander later!
September 1, 1983: A South Korean Boeing 747 of Korean Air was shot down by Soviet fighter jets over the island of Sakhalin, after veering off course. Some 269 passengers and crew members were killed.
Soviet officials acknowledged five days later that they had shot down the South Korean plane.
February 21, 1973: A Libyan Arab Airline Boeing 727 flying from Tripoli to Cairo was shot down by Israeli fighter jets over the Sinai desert. All but four of the 112 people on board were killed.
The Israeli Air Force intervened after the Boeing flew over military facilities in the Sinai, then occupied by Israel.
These reports show that the happening of such disasters is possible in a war situation.
But Iran honestly accepted the responsibility of the accident and knew it was appropriate to speak the truth and apologize.
In similar events, however, governments are clearly reluctant to accept responsibility, and the clear example is the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight. The Kyiv authorities and separatist pro-Russian rebels, who are fighting for control of eastern Ukraine, accused each other of firing the missile that hit the flight and none of them have not yet to accepted the responsibly of that downing.
Another example is downing of Airbus A-300 belonging to Iran Air by US frigate over the Persian Gulf in 1988. The US claiming to be a defender of human rights, never apologized for the lives lost in that incident and even honored the American commander.
MNA/
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