Five incidents involving commercial airliners that were shot down and shocked the world

An Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing more than half of the 67 people on board, in an incident blamed on Russia.

The aircraft was flying from the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku to Grozny, in southern Russia, when it diverted from its planned course and attempted an emergency landing in the Kazakh city of Aktau. The Russian president apologized to his Azeri counterpart for the incident.

But it is not the first time that a passenger aircraft has been shot down in recent decades. Hundreds of people, men, women and children, have lost their lives “accidentally” in the downing of passenger aircraft in the midst of war, unsuspecting victims considered “collateral casualties” for the perpetrators. Abusers often refuse to acknowledge their responsibilities, or they never recognize them.

1. Korean Airlines Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet fighter in 1983

In 1983, Korean Airlines Flight 007, which took off from New York bound for Alaska and then Seoul, was shot down by a Soviet fighter jet after a navigation system error sent the passenger into Soviet airspace. All civilians on the plane – a total of 269 people – were killed. One of the victims was Larry McDonald, a US congressman from the state of Georgia.

A senior State Department official told reporters that the Soviet pilot likely mistook the civilian jet for a surveillance plane in the dark, in an update nearly a year after the flight was shot down.

The Soviet leadership’s immediate reaction to the tragedy—initially refusing to admit responsibility for the downing of the plane—impeded diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet foreign minister only apologized to his South Korean counterpart in 1991, almost eight years after the incident.

2. Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by a US warship in 1988

In the final months of the Iran-Iraq war, the USS Vincennes was on patrol in the Persian Gulf when its commander reported that Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gunboats had fired on a helicopter taken off the Vincennes. In response, the cruiser entered Iranian territorial waters and skirmishes took place with Iranian vessels.

At the time of the clash, an Iran Air Airbus A300 passenger plane that had taken off from Bandar Abbas International Airport was en route to Dubai via the Persian Gulf. The US Navy later announced that the Vincennes mistook the civilian jet for an F-14 fighter jet, prompting the cruiser to fire two surface-to-air missiles at the Iran Air flight, killing all 290 on board.

President Ronald Reagan sent the Iranian government a five-paragraph diplomatic note to express “deep regret” about the incident.

3. Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 shot down in 2001

On October 4, 2001, a plane carrying passengers from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, Russia, was shot down over the Black Sea, killing 38 Russians and 40 Israelis on board.

Nearly 10 days after the incident — and after several public denials, including from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s defense ministry — Ukrainian and Russian officials have concluded that the plane was probably downed by an anti-aircraft missile. The flight coincided with a joint Ukrainian-Russian military training exercise in Crimea, during which the missile was fired.

Russian civil aviation officials said that seconds before the plane crashed, the pilot asked: “Where were we hit?”

In 2003, and then in 2004, the Ukrainian government agreed to pay $200,000 to 78 families in Israel and Russia. Ukrainian officials insisted that the payments they did not constitute an admission of guilt.

4. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down over Ukraine in 2014

On July 17, 2014, all 298 passengers and crew members of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were killed when a surface-to-air missile struck the plane over eastern Ukraine. It is the deadliest downing of an aircraft to date.

The plane disintegrated, scattering debris in an area of ​​19 square miles.

The missile was launched amid hostilities between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists. A Dutch court convicted three people – two Russians and a Ukrainian who held senior roles in separatist militias – of murder in 2022 for their role in the downing of the flight. The court ruled that the missile launch was probably intentional, although it was unclear whether the defendants knew they were firing at a commercial airliner. Dutch investigators said the defendants may not have “pushed the button themselves” but described them as “closely involved”.

Russian authorities have repeatedly denied responsibility for the incident, calling the Dutch court a “politically motivated”. Many international investigations have concluded that pro-Russian separatists, who fired a Buk missile that shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight, were behind the deadly crash.

5. Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by the Revolutionary Guards in 2020

A Ukrainian airliner was shot down by two anti-aircraft missiles shortly after takeoff from Tehran on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 on board. Iran initially blamed a technical fault for the downing of the flight, but eventually admitted that two missiles had hit the plane.

The downing came amid rising tensions between Iran and the United States. After then-President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of a top Iranian commander, Lt.-Gen. Kasem Soleimani, Tehran responded by firing missiles into Iraq, targeting bases housing US forces. The Revolutionary Guards shot down the Ukrainian aircraft hours after the retaliatory barrage.

Days after the incident, Iranian officials said arrests had been made in response to the accidental downing of the flight, although no details were provided. More than a year later, in 2021, 10 Iranian officials were charged over the incident.