New | Timeline: The tragic history of civilian airliners shot down since the cold war
In the wake of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 tragedy, here are some cases of civilian airliners being shot down by armed forces since the end of the second world war.
El Al Flight 402, July 27, 1955. Bulgarian Mig jets shot down an El Al flight from Vienna to Tel Aviv via Istanbul, after the propliner strayed into Bulgarian airspace and refused to land. All 58 crew and passengers on board the Lockheed L-049 Constellation were killed.
Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114. February 21, 1973. The Boeing 727 flying from Tripoli to Cairo was shot down by Israeli fighter jets over the Sinai dessert. All but four of the 112 people on board were killed. The Israeli air force intervened after the Boeing flew over military facilities in the Sinai, then occupied by Israel. Israeli authorities said fighters opened fire when the plane refused to land.
Korean Air Lines Flight 902, April 20, 1978. Russian fighter jets shot down the Boeing 707-321B plane en route from Paris to Seoul after it entered Soviet airspace and failed to respond to the Russian communications. The plane made an emergency landing on a frozen lake. 107 passengers and crew survived, and two passengers were killed.
Air Rhodesia Flight RH825, September 3, 1978. A Vickers Viscount 782D flight from Kariba to Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) was shot down by Zimbabwe People's Revolution Army guerrillas. Eighteen of the 56 passengers on board survived, but ten of the survivors were killed by guerrillas at the crash site.
Air Rhodesia Flight RH827, February 12, 1979. Also a Vickers Viscount en route from Kariba to Salisbury, again downed by Zimbabwe People's Revolution Army guerrillas. All 59 passengers and crew were killed.
Iran Air Flight 655, July 3, 1988. The Airbus A-300 carrying 290 passengers and crew from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates was shot down by the US Navy cruiser USS Vincennes, which misidentified the airliner as an Iranian fighter jet. The US and Iran reached a compensation agreement with the Iranian victims' families in 1996, but the US has never admitted responsibility nor apologised to Iran.
Transair Georgian Airline Shootdowns, September 1993. Three airliners belonging to Transair Georgia were shot down by missiles and gunfire at or near the Sukhumi Airport in Abkhazia, Georgia. A total of 136 passengers and crew members were killed.
Siberia Airlines Flight 1812, October 4, 2001. A Tu-154 plane en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk in Russia crashed into the Black Sea, killing all 66 passengers and 12 crew. It is suspected to have been hit by S-200 surface to air missile, fired from the Crimea peninsula during an exercise by the Ukrainian military.
Balad aircraft crash, January 9, 2007. An Antonov An-26 chartered by a Turkish construction company carrying cargo and passengers crashed while attempting a landing at Balad Air Base in Iraq. Witnesses claim they saw the plane being shot down, and a terrorist group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, claimed responsibility. Thirty four of the 35 passengers on board were killed.
Wikipedia and AFP