At least eight civilian passenger planes have been shot down since 1973.
The incidents of attacks on passenger jets are as follows:
February 21, 1973: A total of 108 people among 113 of a Libyan Arab Airlines flight, were killed when Israeli fighters shot down the Boeing 727-200 after it strayed into the airspace of the Sinai Desert, then under Israeli control.
September 1, 1983: 239 people aboard a Korean Air Lines flight bound from New York to Seoul were killed when the passenger jet was shot down by Soviet fighters during the Cold War. KAL Flight 007 had veered off course and into Soviet territory, and a pair of fighter jets were dispatched to intercept the perceived intruder. US Rep Larry McDonald of Georgia was among the passengers. The downing produced a giant outcry at the time, though the full facts did not become known until after the Cold War's end.
July 3, 1988: In the volatile Persian Gulf, the USS Vincennes shot down an Iran Air Airbus A300 bound for Dubai, United Arab Emirates. All 290 passengers and crew aboard were killed. The United States said the Navy ship had been exchanging fire with Iranian ships and mistook the passenger jet for an Iranian fighter jet.
September 21, 1993: On three consecutive days beginning on September 21, three civilian planes belonging to Transair Georgia were hit by missiles, killing 136 people altogether. Two planes were hit by Abkhazian rebel missiles, with 27 people killed aboard one and 108 on the other. A third plane came under fire as it was being boarded, leaving one crew member dead.
October 4, 2001: A Siberian Airlines Tupelov 154 headed from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Novosibirsk, Russia, was shot down and plunged into the Black Sea, killing all 78 aboard, most of them Russian-born Israelis. The Ukrainian military denied at first but later admitted its military mistakenly shot down the plane during a training exercise.
Source: CNN