List of downed commercial aircraft

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines MH17 was not the first case of a civilian aircraft being brought down by military fire.
The list below provides previous high-profile cases of commercial aircraft shot down, intentionally or by accident:

>> July 22, 1955 - El Al Israel Airlines Flight 402 flying from Vienna, Austria, to Tel Aviv, Israel. The aircraft strayed into Bulgarian airspace, refused to land, and was shot down by Bulgarian jet fighters. All seven crew and 51 passengers on board perished.

>> Feb 21, 1973 - Libyan Airlines Flight 114 flying to Cairo from Tripoli, Libya. During flight, it became lost mainly due to bad weather and equipment failure over northern Egypt and soon entered Israeli-controlled airspace. The flight was intercepted by two Israeli jet fighters, refused to land, and was shot down. From the 113 people on board, only five survived.

>> Feb 12, 1979 - Air Rhodesia Flight 827, carrying 59 on board, flying between Kariba and Salisbury in Zimbabwe when it was shot down by Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary guerrillas using a missile. No survivors recorded.

>> Sept 1, 1983 - Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was a civilian airliner shot down by a Soviet fighter jet. All 269 passengers and crew, including a US congressman, were killed.

>> July 3, 1988 - Iran Air Flight 655 was on route from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was shot down by a surface-to-air missile from the USS Vincennes, a US warship. The ill-fated flight was allegedly misidentified as an Iranian fighter jet. All 290 passengers and crew died.

>> Sept 29, 1998 - Lionair Flight 602 crashed into the sea off the coast of Sri Lanka. Initial reports indicated that the plane had been shot down by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels. All seven crew and 48 passengers died.

>> Oct 4, 2001 - Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashed after it was hit by a missile fired from the Crimea peninsula, Ukraine, during a military exercise. All 66 passengers and 12 crew members died.