The five deadliest cases

Iran Air Flight 655 DATE July 3, 1988 NAME Iran Air Flight 655 AIRCRAFT Airbus A300B2-203 ROUTE Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas, Iran LOCATION over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf SHOOTER U.S. Navy cruiser USS Vincennes fired two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles ALTITUDE climbing after takeoff towards 4,300 m DEATHS 290 The U.S. claimed the Vincennes crew, while in Iran's territorial waters, mistook the Airbus for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat fighter jet that was going to attack their ship. The incident occurred near the end of the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war in which the U.S. was supporting Iraq. The U.S. paid $61.8 million in compensation.

Korean Air Lines Flight 007 DATE Sept. 1, 1983 NAME Korean Air Lines Flight 007 AIRCRAFT Boeing 747-230B ROUTE New York to Seoul via Anchorage LOCATION west of Sakhalin Island, USSR SHOOTER Soviet military Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor jet ALTITUDE 11,000 m DEATHS 269 KAL 007 strayed into prohibited Soviet airspace. The Soviet government first said it didn't know anything about what happened, then claimed the plane was on a spy mission. The Soviets said they thought the KAL flight was an RC-135 reconnaissance plane.

Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 DATE Feb. 21, 1973 NAME Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 AIRCRAFT Boeing 727–224 ROUTE Tripoli to Cairo via Benghazi LOCATION Sinai Peninsula SHOOTER two Israeli air force F-4 Phantom II jets ALTITUDE 6,100 m DEATHS 108 (five people, including the co-pilot survived) Weather conditions and equipment failure resulted in the flight continuing past Cairo. Once over Israeli-occupied Sinai the Boeing was intercepted by the Israeli fighters, which tried to get it to land. The Boeing pilot thought he was over Egypt and the interceptors Egyptian, the inflight recordings later revealed. He was trying to return to Cairo when the Israeli pilots fired 20 mm rounds, apparently trying to cripple the Boeing, not destroy it. The Boeing sustained severe damage and exploded while the pilot attempted a belly landing in the desert.

Siber Airlines Flight 1812 DATE Oct. 4, 2001 NAME Siber Airlines Flight 1812 AIRCRAFT Tupolev Tu-154 ROUTE Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, Russia LOCATION Black Sea SHOOTER Ukraine defence forces 5V28 ground-to-air missile. ALTITUDE 11,000 m DEATHS 78 Ukraine defence forces were conducting a military exercise in Crimea and fired a 5V28 ground-to-air missile, apparently at a drone. It missed and homed in on the Tupolev Tu-154 passenger plane en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, Russia. Most of the passengers had been Soviet immigrants to Israel.