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N0KFQ > TODAY 01.09.14 16:43l 62 Lines 3000 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 34911_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Sep 1
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<IK2XDE<DB0RES<DB0ANF<CX2SA<VE3UIL<N9PMO<KQ0I<N0KFQ
Sent: 140901/1441Z 34911@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Sep 1, 1983:
Korean Airlines flight shot down by Soviet Union
Soviet jet fighters intercept a Korean Airlines passenger flight
in Russian airspace and shoot the plane down, killing 269
passengers and crewmembers. The incident dramatically increased
tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States.
On September 1, 1983, Korean Airlines (KAL) flight 007 was on the
last leg of a flight from New York City to Seoul, with a stopover
in Anchorage, Alaska. As it approached its final destination, the
plane began to veer far off its normal course. In just a short
time, the plane flew into Russian airspace and crossed over the
Kamchatka Peninsula, where some top-secret Soviet military
installations were known to be located. The Soviets sent two
fighters to intercept the plane. According to tapes of the
conversations between the fighter pilots and Soviet ground
control, the fighters quickly located the KAL flight and tried to
make contact with the passenger jet. Failing to receive a
response, one of the fighters fired a heat-seeking missile. KAL
007 was hit and plummeted into the Sea of Japan. All 269 people
on board were killed.
This was not the first time a South Korean flight had run into
trouble over Russia. In 1978, the Soviets forced a passenger jet
down over Murmansk; two passengers were killed during the
emergency landing. In its first public statement concerning the
September 1983 incident, the Soviet government merely noted that
an unidentified aircraft had been shot down flying over Russian
territory. The United States government reacted with horror to
the disaster. The Department of State suggested that the Soviets
knew the plane was an unarmed civilian passenger aircraft.
President Ronald Reagan called the incident a "massacre" and
issued a statement in which he declared that the Soviets had
turned "against the world and the moral precepts which guide
human relations among people everywhere." Five days after the
incident, the Soviets admitted that the plane had indeed been a
passenger jet, but that Russian pilots had no way of knowing
this. A high ranking Soviet military official stated that the KAL
flight had been involved in espionage activities. The Reagan
administration responded by suspending all Soviet passenger air
service to the United States, and dropped several agreements
being negotiated with the Soviets.
Despite the heated public rhetoric, many Soviets and American
officials and analysts privately agreed that the incident was
simply a tragic misunderstanding. The KAL flight had veered into
a course that was close to one being simultaneously flown by a
U.S. spy plane; perhaps Soviet radar operators mistook the two.
In the Soviet Union, several of the military officials
responsible for air defense in the Far East were fired or
demoted. It has never been determined how the KAL flight ended up
nearly 200 miles off course.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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