Hormuz and Death in the Air

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow "choke point" in the Persian Gulf's flow to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. As the Strait of Hormuz at its narrowest is just 54 kilometers (29 nmi) wide, in order to traverse the Strait, ships stay within sea lanes that pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of customary Law of the Sea. During the Iran–Iraq War the Iranian forces would, as they were entitled to, board and inspect neutral cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz area in search of contraband destined for Iraq. It is the only sea passage to the open ocean for large areas of the petroleum-exporting Persian Gulf. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an average of about 15 tankers carrying 16.5 to 17 million barrels of crude oil normally pass through the strait every day. This represents 40% of the world's seaborne oil shipments, and 20% of all world oil shipments

On April 14, 1988 the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a United States Navy's Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate, was struck and badly damaged by a mine in the strait. Ten sailors were evacuated to medical facilities. The crew fought for hours to save the ship. U.S. divers later searched the site for unexploded mines and recovered several whose serial numbers matched the sequence on mines seized the previous September aboard an Iranian mine-layer named Iran Ajr. The Americans responded with Operation Praying Mantis, the largest of the five major U.S. surface engagements since the Second World War. The Americans destroyed the guns and other military facilities on the Sassan and Sirri oil platforms and sank the Joshan, an Iranian fast attack/patrol missile boat. The net results: Iran suffered1 frigate sunk (45 crew killed), 1 gunboat sunk (11 crew killed), 3 speedboats sunk, 1 frigate damaged and 2 platforms damaged. The Americans lost a helicopter and two men.

While this was decisive, it should have been. The Americans fought against several frigates and attack boats with an aircraft carrier, four destroyers, three frigates and a guided missile cruiser. The U.S. naval forces were ordered to stand down and give Iran a way out to avoid further combat. Iran took the offer and combat ceased, though both sides remained on alert, and near-clashes occurred throughout the night and into the next day as the forces steamed within the Gulf.

Three months later on the morning of July 3, 1988, the U.S. Navy's Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes, captained by Captain William C. Rogers III, was passing through the Strait of Hormuz as it returned from an escort duty. A helicopter from the USS Vincennes received small arms fire from Iranian patrol vessels. The Vincennes moved to engage the Iranian vessels, in the course of which they all violated Omani waters and left after being challenged and ordered to leave by a Royal Navy of Oman warship. The Vincennes then pursued the Iranian gunboats crossing into Iranian territorial waters to open fire.

Into this zone of conflict, fear and gunfire flew Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian airliner, an Airbus A300B2 operated by Iran Air, flying from Bandar Abbas, Iran, to Dubai, UAE. The Vincennes crew mistakenly identified the Iranian Airbus A300 as an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter and fired on it, killing all 290 passengers and crew aboard, including 66 children, ranking it seventh among the deadliest airliner fatalities. It was the highest death toll of any aviation incident in the Indian Ocean and the highest death toll of any incident involving an Airbus A300 anywhere in the world.

Arbitrary violence and hostility always breeds arbitrary death. An atmosphere of violence and hostility always is fulfilled. And it is always the unarmed and undefended who suffer.

As an aside, nine months after the downing of Iran Air Flight 655, on March 10, 1989, Captain Rogers' wife Sharon escaped with her life when a pipe bomb attached to her minivan exploded while she was driving to her school where she taught in San Diego.