The downing of Iran Air Flight 655: Iran’s president invokes 1988 tragedy many Americans have forgotten

On Saturday, President Donald Trump invoked history when tweeting out a threat to destroy "52 Iranian sites ... some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture." He said the potential targets represent the 52 Americans who were held hostage there for 444 days from 1979-1981.

On Monday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani invoked history right back in response to Trump’s threat.

His hashtag "#IR655" refers to Iran Air Flight 655, a commercial jet shot down by the U.S. military by mistake on July 3, 1988, killing all 290 civilians and crew on board, including 66 children.

Though the incident is nearly forgotten now in the United States, it is etched deeply in memory in Iran, where the country is mourning the U.S. air strike that killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.

In 1988, the long war between Iraq and Iran was close to ending. At the time, the U.S. supported Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein in its fight against Iran. U.S. Navy ships patrolled the Persian Gulf to protect shipping routes.

On the morning of July 3, the cruiser USS Vincennes was engage in a skirmish with Iranian gunboats in the Strait of Hormuz. Not far away, in the coastal city of Banda Abbas, an Iran Air commercial jet took off for a routine flight to Dubai. This flight was frequently packed with weekend shoppers going to Dubai for jewelry and electronics, The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss reported.

The Vincennes's radar detected the nearby aircraft, and crew members mistook it for an Iranian F-14 fighter jet. After sending warnings with no response, the ship fired two surface-to-air missiles, destroying the aircraft.

According to coverage in The Washington Post at the time, the plane's wreckage fell into Iranian waters. Iranian rescue crews found no survivors, and Iranian television showed footage of bodies floating in the water among the debris.

Iran called the incident a “barbaric massacre” and accused the U.S. of deliberately shooting down a civilian aircraft. At first, Pentagon officials denied any role in the incident until more detailed intelligence revealed their mistake.

"The U.S. government deeply regrets this incident," Adm. William Crowe, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a hastily called press conference soon afterward.

President Ronald Reagan, who was at Camp David for the Fourth of July holiday, said "This is a terrible human tragedy. Our sympathy and condolences go out to the passengers, crew and their families." He also stressed that the airliner had "failed to heed repeated warnings" and the Vincennes took "a proper defensive action."

A month later, a Department of Defense investigation concluded "Iran must share the responsibility for the tragedy" for allowing a civilian aircraft to fly near ongoing hostilities, and that it was "not the result of any negligent or culpable conduct by any U.S. Naval personnel associated with the incident."

But in December of that year, a United Nations agency International Civil Aviation Organization, came to a different conclusion. It faulted the U.S. because none of its ships in the area had the equipment necessary to listen in on civilian air traffic control frequencies, which would have identified the passenger jet.

"Seven of [ICAO's] eight recommendations were directed at the Navy shortcomings it had identified," reported the New York Times.

In May 1989, Iran sued the United States in the International Court of Justice for compensation for the victims and the destruction of the plane. The two governments reached a settlement in 1996; the U.S. did not accept liability but "expressed deep regret over the loss of lives" and agreed to pay $61.8 million to the victims' families.

The shooting down of Flight 655 also coincided with Iraq's increased use of chemical weapons in its war with Iran, prompting Iran to agree to a ceasefire two months later.

To this day, many hard-liners in the Iranian government believe the incident was intentional.