f-14 even though the passenger jet was three times as big. the vincen slammed two missiles into the plane's side. >> president reagan rejects iran's claim that the u.s. shot down that airliner. >> i won't minimize the tragedy that we all know was a tragedy so i think it was an understandable accident to shoot and think that they were under attack from that plane. >> reporter: 290 people were dead. and while the u.s. apologized, it fed mass public protests deepening the trust of the u.s. that remains in tehran to this day. >> this is an nbc news special. shot from the sky. >> reporter: on two separate occasions, korean airlines found itself caught in the middle of armed conflicts. in 1978, one of their planes strayed over soviet air space. two of the 97 passengers on board were killed.