that were ignored. the target is destroyed. everyone onboard was killed. a tragedy that further enflamed tensions between the u.s. and the ussr. we can see no excuse whatsoever for this appalling act. reporter: when a plane is shot out of the sky, there are rarely survivors. bob hager covered the news for three decades. when they recovered the plane s recorders from previous incidents, you hear the noise of the missile hitting a plane. milliseconds of a bam and nothing. we are following developments in the persian gulf, where there s been a major tragedy. reporter: in 1988, it was the united states that made the mistake. a surface-to-air missile was fired from the deck of the udeca