On the afternoon of August 31, 1983, Korea Airlines flight 007 departed Anchorage, Alaska, where it had stopped to refuel, bound for Seoul. There were 269 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 747, from 16 countries. One of the 62 American citizens on the flight was Georgia Congressman Larry McDonald. Twenty-two of the passengers were children under the age of 12.
Shortly after takeoff the flight crew turned on the aircraft’s autopilot system. Either because of a mechanical malfunction or because of pilot error, the autopilot system was engaged in the incorrect mode, allowing the plane to drift north of its scheduled flight path. The navigational deviation went undetected by the flight crew and about three hours later, rather than flying 60 miles east of the Soviet Kamchatka Peninsula, the aircraft flew directly across it.
Cold War tensions were elevated at the time and when Soviet air defense radar detected an aircraft flying from the east and about to violate their airspace, they believed it to likely be a U.S. spy plane. The Soviets scrambled MIG fighters to intercept the plane, but by the time the fighters reached the scene it was back over international waters. The MIGs carried insufficient fuel to enable them to pursue the plane, a precaution Soviet authorities took to prevent pilots from being able to defect.
Seeing that the aircraft was on a course that would take it over Soviet Sakhalin Island, the general commanding the Soviet air defense in the area was determined not to permit it to escape again. Three SU-15 fighters were scrambled with orders to shoot down the intruding plane.
In the black of night visual identification of the target aircraft was difficult. But the lead SU-15 pilot Major Gennadiy Osipovich would later say that he saw the airplane’s blinking lights, and its two rows of windows lit from inside. Osipovich said he fired warning shots, but because he had no tracer shells, in the dark of the night his shots would not have been visible to the KAL flight crew (there is no evidence that they saw or heard them). Osipovich recognized his target as a Boeing civilian aircraft, but said he assumed it was being used for military purposes. His orders were to shoot the plane down. So, he fired two missiles, both of which exploded near the rear of the KAL aircraft, severely damaging it.
The explosions caused the aircraft cabin to decompress, but all passengers and crew are believed to have survived the blasts and to have been able to put on their oxygen masks, as the KAL pilots took control of the aircraft and fought to keep it in the air. Twelve minutes later, the plane crashed into the Sea of Japan. All 269 passengers and crew, who are believed to have been conscious the entire time, were killed instantly.
As soon as the horrible reality of the tragedy became evident, the Soviets began spinning a web of lies. They claimed the KAL aircraft was flying with its lights out (it wasn’t), that their fighters had fired tracer warning shots (they hadn’t), that their fighters had made radio contact with the KAL flight (no radio contact was attempted), and that their instructions had been disobeyed (no such instructions were given). Soviet divers recovered the airplane’s “black box” recorders, but for eight years the Soviets denied having them.
Meanwhile, of course, the incident enflamed already tense U.S-Soviet relations. U.S. President Ronald Reagan called the shootdown a “massacre,” and “inhuman brutality.” The Soviets responded that the KAL flight was in fact a CIA spy mission, and they refused to accept any blame or responsibility for the tragedy. Only after the fall of the Soviet Union did Russian authorities acknowledge their mistakes and the subsequent coverup.
The tragedy is now known to have been caused by a KAL navigational error and by the Soviet failure to identify the aircraft before shooting it down.
On September 1, 1983, thirty-nine years ago today, Korea Airlines Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet fighter plane, killing all 269 passengers and crew.
