Word: ship
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz, mistakenly shot down an Iranian commercial airliner. Iran said the Airbus A300 "exploded in the sky," killing all 298 people on board. Officers on the Vincennes had believed the aircraft was an Iranian F-14 fighter jet that was attacking the U.S. ship. The tragedy immediately invited comparison with the 1983 downing by the Soviet Union of a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747, a disaster that killed 269 people and stirred outrage around the world...
...Iranian Airbus was apparently hit by an SM-2 Standard Missile from the Vincennes at about 10:54 a.m. (2:54 a.m. Washington time), but more than eleven hours passed before what had happened became clear. At midday the U.S. was sticking to its contention that the ship had defended itself against an F- 14. Finally, at 1:20 p.m. Washington time, White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater read a statement from President Reagan, who had been awakened at Camp David at 4:52 a.m. and told of the new fighting. "I am saddened to report," said the President, "that...
...fired upon at 10:10 a.m. local time by Iranian surface vessels. Before long the Vincennes was in combat with at least three armed Iranian speedboats, two of which were sunk and a third damaged. During that battle, the radar aboard the Vincennes detected an aircraft heading toward the ship at high speed -- approximately 520 m.p.h. The plane was at least four or five miles away from any air corridor normally used by commercial jets. Crowe insisted that the Vincennes had tried to communicate with the aircraft seven times. "But the aircraft neither answered nor changed its course," said Crowe...
...sophisticated radar available, unable to tell an F-14 fighter from an % Airbus wide body? Crowe explained that while the system is accurate in gauging the number, range and altitude of approaching aircraft, it is "difficult" to identify the type of aircraft "from a radar blip." One reason the ship mistook the Airbus was that it was descending from an altitude of 9,000 ft. to 7,000 ft. What it was doing at that level is a mystery, according to one Pentagon official, since commercial jets flying that route normally cruise...
...lesson properly taken from that incident was not that the U.S. was too vulnerable to remain, but rather that new rules of engagement were needed to allow ship captains more leeway to defend their crews against hostile forces...