This archive report was first published on 11 January 2020.
On January 11, 2020, Iran's armed forces made a shocking admission: they had unintentionally shot down the Ukrainian airliner that crashed outside Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board.
The admission came a day after the country's civil aviation chief had denied that the plane was brought down by a missile.
The Boeing 737 crashed on January 8, 2020, shortly after Iran launched missiles at American forces in Iraq in response to the killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
Iran's admission has sparked memories of other tragic incidents where planes were brought down by missiles over the past four decades.
One such incident occurred on July 17, 2014, when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Another incident occurred on March 23, 2007, when an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo aircraft belonging to a Belarusian airline was shot down by a rocket shortly after takeoff from the Somalian capital Mogadishu, killing 11 people.
On October 4, 2001, 78 people, mostly Israelis, were killed when their Siberia Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 exploded mid-flight over the Black Sea, with Kiev later admitting that the disaster was due to the accidental firing of a Ukrainian missile.
On July 3, 1988, an Airbus A-300 belonging to Iran Air was shot down in Iran's territorial waters in the Gulf by two missiles fired from a US frigate, killing 290 passengers on board.
On September 1, 1983, a Boeing 747 belonging to Korean Air was shot down by Soviet fighter jets over the island of Sakhalin, killing all 269 people on board.
Finally, on February 21, 1973, a Libyan Arab Airline Boeing 727 was shot down by Israeli fighter jets over the Sinai Desert, killing all but four of the 112 people on board.
