18 July 2014

Glance: Airliners that have been shot down

In this Sept. 27, 1983 file photo, a soviet mini-submarine used to search for debris from Korean Air Lines flight 007, shot down Sept. 1, 1983 near Sakhalin Island, rests on the deck of a conventional tender vessel in Nevel'sk, Sakhalin Island, in the East Sea off Russia. The plane, with 269 passengers and crew, was shot down by a Russian fighter jet west of Sakhalin Island as it strayed into prohibited Soviet airspace. The plane was en route from New York to Seoul on Sept. 1, 1983, following a route that took it over Alaska before crossing the Pacific Ocean.
As unthinkable as shooting down an airliner with hundreds of passengers is, it has happened before. Among the most notable cases in recent decades were an Iranian plane shot down by the U.S. Navy and a South Korean airliner destroyed by a Russian fighter jet.
__Oct. 4, 2001: An errant surface-to-air missile fire by the Ukrainian military during exercises in the Crimea causes the crash of an Air Siberia airliner en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk. All 78 people on board were killed.
—Oct. 20, 1998: Rebels in eastern Congo shoot down a Congo Airlines passenger jet carrying 40 people. The plane crashes into a densely forested area just outside of Kindu, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of Kinshasa.
—Sept. 22, 1993 - Abkhazian rebels in Georgia shoot down a passenger plane, killing 80. A day earlier, 28 died when a Russian Tu-134 was hit by Abkhazian fire and crashed into the Black Sea.
In this July 4, 1988 file photo, people looking for family members walk amid bodies of victims from Iran Air Flight 655 in a morgue in Bandar Abbas, Iran, a day after the plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf by the guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes while the plane was still in Iranian airspace.

—July 3, 1988: U.S. warship Vincennes shoots down an Iranian passenger plane over the Persian Gulf, mistaking it for a threatening warplane, during the war between Iraq and Iran. All 290 people aboard are killed. United States pays more than $ 130 million in a 1996 settlement that includes compensation for families of the victims.
This Feb. 23, 1973, file photo shows the remains of the fuselage section, foreground, of the Libyan Boeing 727 airliner downed by Israeli fighters, over the Sinai Desert. Libyan Airlines Flight 114 en route from Tripoli to Cairo went off course, crossing the Suez Canal into airspace over the Israeli-held Sinai Desert. Israel claims the plane refused to identify itself and two Air Force Phantom jets fired at it to force it to land.

—April 10, 1988: Afghan guerrillas shoot down a Soviet-built passenger jet, killing all 29 people aboard. Soviet television condemns the incident, especially after announcements that a negotiated end to the 10-year-old Afghan war is near.
In this Sept. 2, 1983, file photo, sisters of Lee Chul-Kyu, a passenger on the Ill-fated Korean-Air Lines 747 jetliner, weep, as South Korean government spokesman Lee Jin-Hie announced in Seoul, that it was “almost certain” the jetliner had been shot down en route to Seoul, South Korea. A soviet fighter jet shots down a Korean Air Lines passenger jet en route from New York to Seoul, purportedly mistaking the craft for a spy plane as it wandered into Soviet airspace west of Sakhalin Island. All 269 people aboard are killed.

—Sept. 1, 1983: A Soviet fighter jet shoots down a Korean Air Lines passenger jet en route from New York to Seoul, purportedly mistaking the craft for a spy plane as it wandered into Soviet airspace west of Sakhalin Island. All 269 people aboard are killed. The incident helped lead to the commercial release of GPS for civilian use, including aviation. The technology was developed by the U.S. military.
—April 20, 1978: An off-course South Korean jetliner carrying 110 people is
attacked by a Soviet MiG fighter and is forced to crash land on a frozen lake near Murmansk, killing two passengers.
—Feb. 21, 1973: Libyan Airlines Flight 114 en route from Tripoli to Cairo goes off course, crossing the Suez Canal into airspace over the Israeli-held Sinai Desert. Israel claims the plane refuses to identify itself and two Air Force
Phantom jets fire at it to force it to land. The aircraft goes out of control and crashes, killing 108 people. There are five survivors. 
(AP)
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