Report to Show Human Error in Downing of Airbus, ABC Says

A Pentagon report will conclude that human error led to the cruiser Vincennes’ mistakenly identifying an Iranian Airbus as an attacking F-14 and shooting it down last month, killing 290 people, ABC News reported Tuesday.

A Pentagon official told ABC that the report says the Aegis system aboard the Vincennes functioned well and that human error was primarily responsible for the disaster.

“It was human error,” ABC reported. “When the official report on the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 is finally made public, that is it what it will say.”

Up to now the Aegis weapon system of the cruiser Vincennes was suspected of a malfunction by some of its critics and so was thought at fault in the downing of the jetliner.

The Pentagon report says the cruiser’s own computerized records show that the Iranian Airbus was traveling far slower than the 450 nautical m.p.h. estimated on July 3, the day of the attack, and show it was climbing rather than descending toward the ship, ABC reported.

An attacking F-14 fighter, which the Vincennes apparently believed the Iranian Airbus to be, would have been flying faster and lower.

American military officials last month said the plane was approaching in an “attack pattern” and transmitting military-style transponder signals.

Iran denied both claims.

Items such as speed and altitude are not displayed on the main Aegis radar screen but must be called up separately on a smaller screen by one of the officers operating the system.

ABC said it could not be immediately learned whether the report will say those in the ship’s combat information center misinterpreted the information or conveyed it inaccurately to Capt. Will C. Rogers III, the Vincennes’ skipper.

In defending Rogers the day of the attack, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. William J. Crowe Jr. stressed that information was sketchy. Crowe reportedly is still convinced that Rogers acted properly on the basis of information available to him, the network said.

U.S. Navy officials have said the report will not be released before mid-August.

Rear Adm. William M. Fogarty heads the team that is investigating the disaster. Fogarty presented his findings Monday to Gen. George B. Crist, commander of the U.S. Central Command, the military organization responsible for all U.S. forces in the Middle East.

The Defense Department had no immediate comment on the ABC report.