Backgrounder: World's mysterious airplane crashes

Iran Air Filght 655, all 290 on board killed

People looking for family members walk amid bodies of victims from Iran Air Flight 655 in a morgue in Bandar Abbas, Iran, in this July 4, 1988 file photo, a day after the plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf by the guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes while the plane was still in Iranian airspace. [Photo/IC]

An Iran Air civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai was shot down by the US Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes on July 3, 1988, killing all 290 on board, including 66 children.

The attack took place in Iranian airspace, over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and on the flight's usual flight path. It happened shortly before the Iran-Iraq War ended in August 1988.

Tehran said Vincennes negligently shot down the plane, which was flying in a mode different from Iranian military planes, identifying it as a civilian aircraft.

The US government claimed the crew incorrectly identified the Airbus A300 as an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter.