1984 Arabi Island incident
On 5 June 1984, an air battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran took place near Arabi Island in the Persian Gulf.
Background
Saudi Arabia had been one of the Arab states backing Iraq during its war with Iran. Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini threatened to attack Saudi Arabia and other Arab states supporting Iraq.Air battle
Two Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantoms from Bushehr Air Base, had intruded into Saudi airspace, setting up for an attack on oil tankers. The planes were tracked by a United States Air Force E-3 Sentry AEW&C aircraft, which directed two patrolling Saudi F-15 Eagles armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles to intercept the Iranians.The Saudis shot down one Iranian Phantom, killing 1st Lts Homayoun Hekmati and weapon systems officer Seyed Sirous Karimi. The second Iranian F-4 was damaged, and made an emergency landing at Kish Airport. The aircraft could not be repaired and was written off. This caused the Iranians to scramble 11 additional F-4s from Bushehr. The tense standoff reportedly lasted "several minutes" before the Iranian jets returned to their airbase.
In response, the Royal Saudi Air Force scrambled 11 additional F-15s. Seeing this, the Iranians backed down, and the Saudis returned to base.