MH17 - just another mistake: remember the USS Vincennes

America never apologised for shooting down an Iranian passenger jet, killing 290 people, 66 of them children

Crispin Black

In the dismal book-keeping of civilian airliners shot down by military forces, the destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 is as clear an example as any of an incident in the cock-up column rather than the conspiracy column. It should come as no surprise that US intelligence officials briefed reporters yesterday that the plane was most likely hit by mistake.

Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists did not intend to bring down a civilian airliner; what they wanted to do was to shoot down a Ukrainian air force plane. It was not an act of terror but an act of war: in the most brutal and unforgiving style of warfare known to mankind, civil war.

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is a former Welsh Guards lieutenant colonel and intelligence analyst for the British government's Joint Intelligence Committee. His book, 7-7: What Went Wrong, was one of the first to be published after the London bombings in July 2005.