After Iran has admitted responsibility for the crash of a Ukrainian Airlines Boeing 737 three days ago over Tehran, the following is a reminder of the most prominent incidents of civilian aircraft dropping missiles around the world in about forty years:
July 17, 2014: Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 airliner crashes on a flight between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur with 298 people, including 196 Dutch citizens, near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, which is witnessing an armed conflict and is controlled by pro-Russian separatists, without escaping any crash.
In May 2018, international investigators found that the plane was shot down with a Soviet Boch missile launched from the 53rd Russian Air Defense Brigade in Kursk, in southwestern Russia.
In June 2019, investigators charged three Russians and Ukraine in the case, and their trial is scheduled to begin in March 2020 in the Netherlands. Their trial is expected to take place in absentia.
March 23, 2007: a Belarus Ilyushin plane with a missile landed shortly after takeoff over the Somali capital Mogadishu, which was experiencing a civil war, killing 11 people. The plane was carrying a team of Belarusian engineers and technologists who went to Somalia to repair a plane struck by a missile two weeks ago.
- October 04, 2004: A Russian Sibir Tu-154 plane that connects Tel Aviv and Novosibirsk in Western Siberia explodes in the sky while flying over the Black Sea, 300 km from the coast of Crimea. 78 people were killed, most of them Israelis. A week later, Kiev announced that the disaster occurred due to the accidental launch of a Ukrainian missile.
July 03, 1988: Iranian Airbus A-300 plane crashes from Bandar Abbas to Dubai, shortly after take off, after it was hit by two missiles fired from an American frigate in the Strait of Hormuz. 290 people were killed in the disaster.
The USS Vincennes frigate team confirmed that it believed that the plane was an Iranian fighter flying to hostile targets. Iran has received compensation from the United States of 101.8 million dollars.
September 1, 1983: a Soviet fighter jet crashes a Korean Air Force Boeing 747 plane over Sakhalin Island, after it veered off course. 269 passengers and crew were killed.
Only five days later, Moscow recognized its responsibility for the crash, under international pressure and condemnation from the United Nations Security Council.
- February 21, 1973: Israeli warplanes shot down a Libyan Arab Airlines Boeing 727, on a flight between Tripoli and Cairo over the Sinai desert. 108 of the 112 people on board were killed.
The plane, which lost its way over the Sinai peninsula occupied by Israel, was intercepted, and the Israeli authorities said that the flight crew refused to land.