U.S. Ambassador Arnold L. Raphel attending a ceremony to welcome visiting U.S. officials in Pakistan, April 1988.
U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel, who had spent much of his 22-year diplomatic career in South Asia made a name for himself as the diplomat who helped secure the release of American hostages during the Iran hostage crisis, which ended in 1981. On Aug. 17, 1988, he was aboard a C-130 military plane on a routine flight when it mysteriously exploded near Lahore and crashed. Also aboard the plane was Pakistan’s president Zia ul-Haq and many Pakistani military generals. Everyone aboard — more than 30 people — perished in the crash, about which conspiracy theories still persist.