Six months before Pan Am exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988, an Iranian airbus was shot down by the US warship Vincennes, killing 290. Correspondent shows what really happened that day and why the Lockerbie victims might have been the last casualties of the Gulf War.
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Factual: Correspondent 6.45pm BBC2
The west trumpeted the victory of the moderates in February's Iranian elections but the new government is not likely to stay flavour of the month for long. It is set to renew calls for the withdrawal of US and allied forces from the Gulf and this report reminds us why, examining the US's covert war with Iran during the eighties. It investigates how a US warship shot down an Iranian Airbus on a flight to Dubai killing 290 passengers in 1988. It seems the USS Vincennes fired two missiles at the passenger aircraft in the belief it was being attacked by an Iranian fighter. Six months later when a terrorist bomb brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, some speculated it may have been a revenge attack. (GE)