On July 3, 1988, an American warship shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 290 civilians. What caused this tragic blunder? According to the article, the cause was a deadly combination of panicked crewmen, a brand-new state-of-the-art Aegis weapons’ system that no one on the ship really understood, and an overeager “trigger-happy” captain just spoiling for a fight. And then, to make matters worse, the Navy tried to cover-up and justify its mistake and even awarded ribbons to the men of the cruiser.