🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 131 (from laksa042)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa131.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical, ml_categories_json AS ml_categories_json, ml_types_json AS ml_types_json, ml_intent_types_json AS ml_intent_types_json, meta_language AS meta_language, attrs_author AS attrs_author, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_publish_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_original_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_original_publish_time, ifNull(attrs_is_republished, 0) AS attrs_is_republished, ifNull(attrs_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_nr_words, ifNull(attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, ifNull(body_ext_links_number, 0) AS body_ext_links_number, ifNull(body_int_links_number, 0) AS body_int_links_number, ifNull(meta_nofollow, 0) AS meta_nofollow, ifNull(meta_noarchive, 0) AS meta_noarchive, ifNull(props_was_rendered, 0) AS props_was_rendered, ifNull(src_redirect, \'\') AS src_redirect, ifNull(download_time_msec, 0) AS download_time_msec, ifNull(download_ttfb_msec, 0) AS download_ttfb_msec, ifNull(download_size, 0) AS download_size FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/13/apology-different-plane-crash-30-years-later\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/13/apology-different-plane-crash-30-years-later\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/views\/2019\/03\/13\/apology-different-plane-crash-30-years-later","crawl_time":1777124677,"first_indexed_time":1552498112,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"org,commondreams!www,\/views\/2019\/03\/13\/apology-different-plane-crash-30-years-later s443","src_root_hash":"986588385344903931","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Opinion | An Apology for a Different Plane Crash, 30 Years Later | Common Dreams","meta_descriptions":["While most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the U.S. military is marked every year just as the 9\/11 attack is remembered every year in the United States"],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"The tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there.\nThe tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect\noil\ntrade\nroutes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the\nwater\n, killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members.\nAccording to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet.\nMost Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third.\nThe Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data.\nMonths before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or \"Robocruiser,\" as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable.\nThe U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew.\nParticularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. \"I will never apologize for the\nUnited States\nof America. Ever,\" he\ninsisted\n, \"I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.\"\nWhile U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the\nInternational Court of Justice\n. With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting $213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing.\nWhile most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the\nU.S. military\nis marked every year just as the\n9\/11\nattack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy.\nThat's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in\nTehran\n, a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation.\nThe moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will.","attrs_markdown":"To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our [More Ways to Give page.](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/more-ways-donate)\n\n×\n\n- [Home](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/)\n- [Politics](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/politics)\n- [Climate](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/climate)\n- [Economy](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/economy)\n- [Rights & Justice](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/rights-justice)\n- [War & Peace](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/war-peace)\n- [Breaking News](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/breaking-news)\n- [Opinion](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion)\n- [News](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news)\n- 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Wars](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/upstate-coalition-ground-drones-and-end-wars)\n- [Center for Reproductive Rights](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/center-reproductive-rights)\n- [People's Action](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/peoples-action)\n- [Jewish Voice for Peace](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/jewish-voice-peace)\n- [Iraq Veterans Against the War](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/iraq-veterans-against-war)\n- [US Robin Hood Tax Campaign](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/us-robin-hood-tax-campaign)\n- [Chesapeake Climate Action Network](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/chesapeake-climate-action-network)\n- [Council of Canadians](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/council-canadians)\n- [Haiti: Make Births Safe](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/haiti-make-births-safe)\n- [Center for Corporate Policy](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/center-corporate-policy)\n- [Our Children's Trust](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/our-childrens-trust)\n- [The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/partnership-civil-justice-fund)\n- [Friends of the Earth International](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/organization\/friends-earth-international)\n\n\\+\n\n[LATEST NEWS](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news)[OPINION](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion)[CLIMATE](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/climate)[ECONOMY](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/economy) [POLITICS](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/politics) [RIGHTS & JUSTICE](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/rights-justice)[WAR & PEACE](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/war-peace)\n\n[NEWSLETTER SIGNUP](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/newsletter)\n\n[LATEST NEWS](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news)\n\n[OPINION](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion)\n\n[NEWSLETTER 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To ignite change for the common good.](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/ \"Common Dreams\")\n\n![SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER](<data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 1500 2000'%3E%3C\/svg%3E>)\n\n![](<data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 100 100'%3E%3C\/svg%3E>)\n\n## SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER\n### Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.\n5\n\n\\#000000\n\n\\#FFFFFF\n\nRECOMMENDED...\n\n[![US President Donald Trump answers questions after signing an executive order to limit mail-in voting in the Oval Office of the White House on March 31, 2026 in Washington, DC. ](<data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 600 600'%3E%3C\/svg%3E>)](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/iran-war-planes)\n\n## [As Search for US Airman Continues, Trump Issues Latest 'Countdown to Massive War Crimes'](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/iran-war-planes)\n\n[![Alannah Acaq Hurley next to No Pebble Mine graffiti. ](<data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg' viewBox='0 0 600 600'%3E%3C\/svg%3E>)](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2026-goldman-environmental-prize)\n\n## ['This Is a Fight for Humanity': Meet the 2026 Winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2026-goldman-environmental-prize)\n\n1. [HOME](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/)\\>\n2. [Opinion](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion)\\>\n3. [codepink](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/codepink)\\>\n\n![An Apology for a Different Plane Crash, 30 Years Later](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/a-hand-crafted-commemorative-book-crafted-by-u-s-peace-delegate-barbara-briggs-letson-an-85-year-old-retired-american-nurse-fr.png?id=32264590&width=1200&height=400&quality=70&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C354)\n\nA hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by U.S. peace delegate Barbara Briggs-Letson, an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco, contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives when Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down in 1988. It also contained individual notes from the other 28 members of the delegation. (Photo: Courtesy of the author)\n\n# An Apology for a Different Plane Crash, 30 Years Later\n## While most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the U.S. military is marked every year just as the 9\/11 attack is remembered every year in the United States\n\n[Medea Benjamin](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/medea-benjamin)\n\nMar 13, 2019[Common Dreams](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/)\n\n[Opinion](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion)[War & Peace](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/war-peace)\n\nMar 13, 2019\n\nThe tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there.\n\nThe tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect [oil](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/oil) [trade](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/trade) routes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the [water](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/water), killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members.\n\nAccording to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet.\n\n## SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER\n### Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.\nsubscribe\n\nbelow\n\nTrue\n\nTrue\n\nMost Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third.\n\nThe Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data.\n\nMonths before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or \"Robocruiser,\" as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable.\n\nThe U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew.\n\nParticularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. \"I will never apologize for the [United States](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/united-states) of America. Ever,\" he [insisted](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/George_H._W._Bush), \"I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.\"\n\nWhile U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the [International Court of Justice](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/international-court-of-justice). With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting \\$213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing.\n\nWhile most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the [U.S. military](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/us-military) is marked every year just as the [9\/11](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/911) attack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy.\n\nThat's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in [Tehran](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/tehran), a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation.\n\nThe moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will.\n\n## [An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/message-from-common-dreams)\n|   |   |\n|---|---|\n| Dear Common Dreams reader,  The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets.   **That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done.**  Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good.  **Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support.**  That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you.  ****Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams?****  Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most.  \\- Craig Brown, Co-founder |   |\n\nOur work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.\n\n[Medea Benjamin](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/medea-benjamin)\n\nMedea Benjamin is co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace. She is the co-author, with Nicolas J.S. Davies, of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, available from OR Books in November 2022. Other books include, \"Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran\" (2018); \"Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection\" (2016); \"Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control\" (2013); \"Don't Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart\" (1989), and (with Jodie Evans) \"Stop the Next War Now\" (2005).\n\n[codepink](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/codepink)[iran](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/iran)[medea benjamin](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/medea-benjamin)[tehran](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/tehran)\n\nThe tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there.\n\nThe tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect [oil](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/oil) [trade](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/trade) routes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the [water](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/water), killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members.\n\nAccording to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet.\n\nMost Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third.\n\nThe Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data.\n\nMonths before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or \"Robocruiser,\" as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable.\n\nThe U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew.\n\nParticularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. \"I will never apologize for the [United States](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/united-states) of America. Ever,\" he [insisted](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/George_H._W._Bush), \"I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.\"\n\nWhile U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the [International Court of Justice](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/international-court-of-justice). With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting \\$213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing.\n\nWhile most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the [U.S. military](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/us-military) is marked every year just as the [9\/11](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/911) attack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy.\n\nThat's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in [Tehran](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/tehran), a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation.\n\nThe moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will.\n\n[Medea Benjamin](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/medea-benjamin)\n\nMedea Benjamin is co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace. She is the co-author, with Nicolas J.S. Davies, of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, available from OR Books in November 2022. Other books include, \"Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran\" (2018); \"Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection\" (2016); \"Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control\" (2013); \"Don't Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart\" (1989), and (with Jodie Evans) \"Stop the Next War Now\" (2005).\n\nThe tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there.\n\nThe tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect [oil](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/oil) [trade](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/trade) routes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the [water](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/water), killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members.\n\nAccording to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet.\n\nMost Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third.\n\nThe Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data.\n\nMonths before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or \"Robocruiser,\" as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable.\n\nThe U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew.\n\nParticularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. \"I will never apologize for the [United States](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/united-states) of America. Ever,\" he [insisted](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/George_H._W._Bush), \"I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.\"\n\nWhile U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the [International Court of Justice](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/international-court-of-justice). With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting \\$213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing.\n\nWhile most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the [U.S. military](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/us-military) is marked every year just as the [9\/11](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/911) attack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy.\n\nThat's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in [Tehran](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/tehran), a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation.\n\nThe moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will.\n\n[codepink](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/codepink)[iran](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/iran)[medea benjamin](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/medea-benjamin)[tehran](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/tehran)\n\n[Join the Conversation](https:\/\/commons.commondreams.org\/t\/an-apology-for-a-different-plane-crash-30-years-later\/252707)\n\n**We've had enough.** The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? **We can't do it without you. Thank you.**\n\n## SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER\n### Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.\nsubscribe\n\nbelow\n\nTrue\n\nTrue\n\nFollow Us","attrs_readable_markdown":"The tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there.\n\nThe tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect [oil](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/oil) [trade](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/trade) routes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the [water](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/water), killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members.\n\nAccording to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet.\n\nMost Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third.\n\nThe Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data.\n\nMonths before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or \"Robocruiser,\" as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable.\n\nThe U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew.\n\nParticularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. \"I will never apologize for the [United States](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/united-states) of America. Ever,\" he [insisted](https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/George_H._W._Bush), \"I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.\"\n\nWhile U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the [International Court of Justice](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/international-court-of-justice). With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting \\$213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing.\n\nWhile most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the [U.S. military](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/us-military) is marked every year just as the [9\/11](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/911) attack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy.\n\nThat's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in [Tehran](https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/tehran), a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation.\n\nThe moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will.","meta_canonical":null,"ml_categories_json":"{\"\/News\":552,\"\/People_and_Society\":427,\"\/People_and_Society\/Social_Issues_and_Advocacy\":381,\"\/News\/World_News\":283,\"\/Law_and_Government\":262,\"\/People_and_Society\/Social_Issues_and_Advocacy\/Human_Rights_and_Liberties\":197,\"\/Law_and_Government\/Military\":164,\"\/Law_and_Government\/Military\/Air_Force\":153}","ml_types_json":"{\"\/Article\":997,\"\/Article\/Opinion_Piece\":962}","ml_intent_types_json":"{\"Informational\":999}","meta_language":"en","attrs_author":null,"attrs_publish_time":1552449600,"attrs_original_publish_time":1552449600,"attrs_is_republished":0,"attrs_nr_words":"3848","attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words":"707","body_ext_links_number":7,"body_int_links_number":277,"meta_nofollow":0,"meta_noarchive":0,"props_was_rendered":1,"src_redirect":"","download_time_msec":265,"download_ttfb_msec":228,"download_size":149973}

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Opinion | An Apology for a Different Plane Crash, 30 Years Later | Common Dreams

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While most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the U.S. military is marked every year just as the 9/11 attack is remembered every year in the United States

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The tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there. The tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect oil trade routes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the water , killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members. According to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. Most Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third. The Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data. Months before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or "Robocruiser," as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable. The U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew. Particularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. "I will never apologize for the United States of America. Ever," he insisted , "I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy." While U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the International Court of Justice . With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting $213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing. While most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the U.S. military is marked every year just as the 9/11 attack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy. That's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in Tehran , a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation. The moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will.

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[![US President Donald Trump answers questions after signing an executive order to limit mail-in voting in the Oval Office of the White House on March 31, 2026 in Washington, DC. ](<data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 600 600'%3E%3C/svg%3E>)](https://www.commondreams.org/news/iran-war-planes) ## [As Search for US Airman Continues, Trump Issues Latest 'Countdown to Massive War Crimes'](https://www.commondreams.org/news/iran-war-planes) [![Alannah Acaq Hurley next to No Pebble Mine graffiti. ](<data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 600 600'%3E%3C/svg%3E>)](https://www.commondreams.org/news/2026-goldman-environmental-prize) ## ['This Is a Fight for Humanity': Meet the 2026 Winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize](https://www.commondreams.org/news/2026-goldman-environmental-prize) 1. [HOME](https://www.commondreams.org/)\> 2. [Opinion](https://www.commondreams.org/opinion)\> 3. [codepink](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/codepink)\> ![An Apology for a Different Plane Crash, 30 Years Later](https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-hand-crafted-commemorative-book-crafted-by-u-s-peace-delegate-barbara-briggs-letson-an-85-year-old-retired-american-nurse-fr.png?id=32264590&width=1200&height=400&quality=70&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C354) A hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by U.S. peace delegate Barbara Briggs-Letson, an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco, contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives when Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down in 1988. It also contained individual notes from the other 28 members of the delegation. (Photo: Courtesy of the author) # An Apology for a Different Plane Crash, 30 Years Later ## While most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the U.S. military is marked every year just as the 9/11 attack is remembered every year in the United States [Medea Benjamin](https://www.commondreams.org/author/medea-benjamin) Mar 13, 2019[Common Dreams](https://www.commondreams.org/) [Opinion](https://www.commondreams.org/opinion)[War & Peace](https://www.commondreams.org/war-peace) Mar 13, 2019 The tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there. The tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect [oil](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/oil) [trade](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/trade) routes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the [water](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/water), killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members. According to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. ## SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER ### Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox. subscribe below True True Most Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third. The Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data. Months before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or "Robocruiser," as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable. The U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew. Particularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. "I will never apologize for the [United States](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/united-states) of America. Ever," he [insisted](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush), "I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy." While U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the [International Court of Justice](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/international-court-of-justice). With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting \$213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing. While most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the [U.S. military](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/us-military) is marked every year just as the [9/11](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/911) attack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy. That's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in [Tehran](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/tehran), a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation. The moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will. ## [An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder](https://www.commondreams.org/message-from-common-dreams) | | | |---|---| | Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. **That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done.** Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. **Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support.** That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. ****Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams?**** Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. \- Craig Brown, Co-founder | | Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely. [Medea Benjamin](https://www.commondreams.org/author/medea-benjamin) Medea Benjamin is co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace. She is the co-author, with Nicolas J.S. Davies, of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, available from OR Books in November 2022. Other books include, "Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran" (2018); "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection" (2016); "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control" (2013); "Don't Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart" (1989), and (with Jodie Evans) "Stop the Next War Now" (2005). [codepink](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/codepink)[iran](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/iran)[medea benjamin](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/medea-benjamin)[tehran](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/tehran) The tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there. The tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect [oil](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/oil) [trade](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/trade) routes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the [water](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/water), killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members. According to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. Most Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third. The Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data. Months before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or "Robocruiser," as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable. The U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew. Particularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. "I will never apologize for the [United States](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/united-states) of America. Ever," he [insisted](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush), "I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy." While U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the [International Court of Justice](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/international-court-of-justice). With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting \$213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing. While most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the [U.S. military](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/us-military) is marked every year just as the [9/11](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/911) attack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy. That's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in [Tehran](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/tehran), a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation. The moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will. [Medea Benjamin](https://www.commondreams.org/author/medea-benjamin) Medea Benjamin is co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace. She is the co-author, with Nicolas J.S. Davies, of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, available from OR Books in November 2022. Other books include, "Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran" (2018); "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection" (2016); "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control" (2013); "Don't Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart" (1989), and (with Jodie Evans) "Stop the Next War Now" (2005). The tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there. The tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect [oil](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/oil) [trade](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/trade) routes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the [water](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/water), killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members. According to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. Most Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third. The Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data. Months before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or "Robocruiser," as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable. The U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew. Particularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. "I will never apologize for the [United States](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/united-states) of America. Ever," he [insisted](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush), "I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy." While U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the [International Court of Justice](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/international-court-of-justice). With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting \$213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing. While most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the [U.S. military](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/us-military) is marked every year just as the [9/11](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/911) attack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy. That's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in [Tehran](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/tehran), a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation. The moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will. [codepink](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/codepink)[iran](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/iran)[medea benjamin](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/medea-benjamin)[tehran](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/tehran) [Join the Conversation](https://commons.commondreams.org/t/an-apology-for-a-different-plane-crash-30-years-later/252707) **We've had enough.** The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? **We can't do it without you. Thank you.** ## SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER ### Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox. subscribe below True True Follow Us

Readable Markdown

The tragic Ethiopian Airline plane crash recalls another passenger plane crash some 30 years ago. The latter, however, was not due to a mechanical malfunction but to U.S. missiles. And while very few Americans remember this incident, it still weighs heavy on the hearts of many Iranians--as we discovered on our recent trip there. The tragic downing of the commercial passenger airline, Iran Air Flight 655, happened on July 3, 1988. A U.S. Navy ship called the Vincennes was stationed in the Persian Gulf to protect [oil](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/oil) [trade](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/trade) routes. The plane had just taken off from nearby Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran when U.S. personnel on the warship fired two surface-to-air missiles. The flight was still in Iranian airspace, climbing on its regularly scheduled flight to Dubai, when it was hit. The plane disintegrated immediately and crashed into the [water](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/water), killing all 290 onboard--274 passengers and 16 crew members. According to the U.S. government, this was an accident: the crew thought the Iranian Airbus A300 was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. Most Iranians, however, believe it was a deliberate war crime. Earlier that day, the same U.S. ship had sunk two Iranian gunboats in Iranian waters and damaged a third. The Iranian belief that the passenger plane was attacked on purpose was reinforced when the U.S. government made a series of inaccurate claims. One claim was that the plane was not on a normal flight path but was diving toward the ship; the truth is that the plane was climbing, and was on its correct path. Another was that the plane's identification transponder was not working or had been altered; the truth is that the plane had actually been emitting, by radio, the standard commercial identifying data. Months before the plane was shot down, air traffic controllers and the crews of other warships in the Persian Gulf had been warning that poorly trained U.S. crews, especially the gung-ho captain and crew of the Vincennes (or "Robocruiser," as other crews had nicknamed it), were constantly misidentifying civilian aircraft over the Persian Gulf, making this horrific incident entirely predictable. The U.S. Navy added insult to injury when, two years later, it awarded combat medals to the warship's captain and crew--never even mentioning the downing of the plane. The town of Vincennes, Indiana, for which the ship was named, even launched a fundraising campaign for a monument to honor the ship and its crew. Particularly callous was a statement by then Vice-President George H.W. Bush, who was campaigning for president at the time. "I will never apologize for the [United States](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/united-states) of America. Ever," he [insisted](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush), "I don't care what the facts are. I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy." While U.S. officials refused to accept culpability, in 1996 the Iranians took to the U.S. government to the [International Court of Justice](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/international-court-of-justice). With all the evidence against the Vincennes, the U.S. government agreed to a settlement, granting \$213,000 per passenger to the victims' families. But the government still refused to formally apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing. While most Americans have no memory of this incident, in Iran the date of the deaths of 290 innocent people at the hands of the [U.S. military](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/us-military) is marked every year just as the [9/11](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/911) attack is remembered every year in the United States. To some Iranians, it is just one more example of the callousness of U.S. policy. That's why our peace delegation that visited Iran in early March decided to make a special gift to the Peace Museum in [Tehran](https://www.commondreams.org/tag/tehran), a museum dedicated to ending war. It was a hand-crafted commemorative book crafted by one of our delegates, Barbara Briggs-Letson, who is an 85-year-old retired American nurse from San Francisco. It contained a letter of remorse, verses of poetry, the names--in Farsi--of all those who lost their lives, and individual notes from the 28 members of our delegation. The moving ceremony at the Peace Museum left all of us, Americans and Iranians, weeping. We made it clear that while our government won't apologize for its dirty deeds in Iran--from overthrowing Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 to shooting down a passenger plane in 1988 to unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2017--we, the people, will.

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