September 1, 1983 CE – Korean Air Flight 007 is Shot Down by a Soviet Fighter Jet

478

*Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons Late in the evening of September 1, 1983, a Korean Airlines 747 speed across the night sky bound for Seoul from New York City after a stopover in Anchorage, Alaska. Cruising at 35,000 feet above the Sea of Japan, the large airliner burst into flames. A Russian Su-15 fighter jet, believing the aircraft to be an incursion on Soviet airspace, had unknowingly launched two missiles at Korean Air Flight 007 and doomed those aboard. Within five minutes, the aircraft filled with 269 passengers and crew had crashed into the water below. Korean Air Flight (KAL) 007 had lifted off the ground in Anchorage much the same as it typically did — bearing west-southwest toward over the Bering Sea far outside Soviet airspace. Aiming for Romeo 20, an air corridor over international waters traveled by airliners according to treaty agreements, the plane began drifting north a few minutes into flight. The 747 was tragically off course — a little more than five miles within a half-hour and more than twice that just 20 minutes later. By the time it reached Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, KAL 007 was nearly 185 miles away from where it should have been over international waters. The Soviets, twitching under the tension of the Cold War, detected the airliner entering restricted airspace at 4:51pm. Within a matter of minutes, KAL 007 was nearing the boundary of prohibited airspace 62 miles off the coast and General Anatoly Kornukov, commander of the Sokol Air Base ordered, ordered four fighters into the sky to bring the unidentified aircraft down. Thrown off by Soviet radar damaged during a recent wind storm, the pilots were unable to locate KAL 007 before it had passed over the peninsula. An hour later, as the jetliner neared a second Soviet installation at Sakhalin Island, Kornukov ordered the aircraft destroyed regardless of location — even international airspace, if necessary — without identification. As the fighter jets neared KAL 007, warning shots were fired without response. Identifying the plane as a Boeing, Major Genadi Osipovich would later claim he knew the plane had civilian origins but he — like others in the Soviet military — wondered if the aircraft hadn’t been disguised in order to slip behind enemy lines easier. In the cockpit of the aircraft, the pilot of KAL 007 radioed to Tokyo International Airport looking for permission to climb in order to save fuel. Once granted by air traffic control, he pulled the nose up to begin the 3,000-foot ascent that would help the 747 travel with less air resistance. Osipovich, circling outside, noticed the movement and sped over the airliner — unable to maintain air speed at the slow rate the massive passenger plane was climbing, he whipped his fighter into a hard turn and came up underneath KAL 007. Achieving a missile lock, Osipovich fired two R-8s at the target. Seeing an explosion, he called back to home base and reported it destroyed. Observing the aircraft on radar, Soviet officials were baffled: after a rapid descent, the plane managed to level off at 16,000 feet. Within minutes, however, KAL 007 had spiraled into the sea. A nearby fisherman reported hearing “a loud sound followed by a bright flash of light on the horizon, then another dull sound and a less intense flash of light on the horizon.” The 269 passengers and crew — including one US Congressman, Lawrence McDonald of Georgia — perished. Angered by the perceived recklessness of the Soviet military, US President Ronald Reagan condemned the attack as an “act of barbarism.” In replying, Soviet officials pointed out the presence of an American Air Force RC-135 radar plane in the area and pointed fingers at the Central Intelligence Agency. Over the coming months and years, both sides would be forced to come to grips with a series of fateful mistakes by the flight crew and Soviet military despite tremendous animosity. Two weeks later, Reagan announced a new program to open the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to civilian services when it became operational. More than a decade after the tragic accident in the skies over the Sea of Japan, GPS went into service as a means to prevent future problems in 1994.