Korean Air Flight 007

Korean Air Flight 007 was a flight from New York (United States) to Seoul (South Korea) with a stopover in Anchorage, Alaska (United States) that departed on August 31. 1983, also known as KAL 007 or KE007, the passenger plane operated by a Boeing 747-200 of the South Korean airline Korean Air, was shot down by Soviet interceptors on 1 September when it was flying over restricted Soviet territory. It is one of the most serious incidents that occurred in the Cold War.

KAL 007 was shot down west of Sakhalin Island, just above Moneron Island. KAL 007 was carrying 269 passengers and crew, including US Congressman Larry McDonald. To this day, the precise facts of the flight are unknown, due to the numerous intersecting international military and intelligence aspects.

The Soviet Union claimed to be unaware that the device was civilian and suggested that it had entered Soviet airspace as a deliberate action to test its response capabilities and to carry out espionage work given that other U.S. military devices were not involved. The US were in the area to collect intelligence data related to the alleged launch of a Soviet missile in the same place and at the same time. The demolition brought a wave of protests around the world, particularly from the United States, which found a good opportunity to deepen its anti-communist positions in the context of the Cold War.

It was the most serious air disaster of 1983 and was considered the largest downing of an aircraft in aviation history until Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988 and later Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014.

Context

The incident occurred at a time of serious tensions in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In December 1979, NATO deployed 108 Pershing II atomic missiles to Western Europe that could hit targets in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania within 10 minutes, as well as BGM-109 GLCM cruise missiles with nuclear warheads capable of reaching Moscow. In mid-February 1981, the United States launched a campaign of psychological operations against the Soviet Union, including clandestine naval operations and flights of atomic bombers against Soviet airspace that turned around at the last moment, sometimes several times a day. week, which were maintained at the time of the shootdown. Shortly before, preparations had also begun for the gigantic Able Archer 83 military maneuvers, which simulated a massive attack against the Soviet Union. In response, the USSR launched Operation RYAN to prepare for a surprise atomic attack. Shortly after the downing of KAL 007, the autumnal equinox incident occurred, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Thus, the context was one of extreme mistrust and tension.

Events

Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was a commercial Boeing 747-200 (registration: HL7442) flying from New York to the main Gimpo International Airport. It took off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on August 31 with 246 passengers and 23 highly experienced crew members.

After refueling at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, the plane took off at 13:00 GMT (UTC) (5:00 local time) on September 1, setting the autopilot to constant bearing. magnetic instead of in heading points mode, which then caused it to set a westerly heading and then arc south on a route toward Seoul International Airport. Kimpo (now Gimpo Airport). This would take the device much further west than usual (245º magnetic), passing over the Kamchatka peninsula and then through the Sea of Okhotsk towards Sakhalin, violating Soviet territory on two occasions. As the onboard computer set constant coordinates, the crew did not realize that it was 550 km further north than the planned route. Another KAL flight was behind KAL 007; and at a given moment in the communications between them, when they compared the flight conditions, the plane following behind had different wind conditions from those of KAL 007; but even though the co-pilot of KAL 007 noticed that there was an abnormality in two planes that were supposed to fly on the same route, he did not make the confirmations.

As background, Korean Air had flown into Soviet airspace before. In April 1978, a Soviet fighter plane shot down Korean Airlines Flight 902, a Boeing 707, after it had flown over the Kola Peninsula, killing two passengers and forcing the plane to crash-land on a frozen lake. The investigation of the case was difficult, due to the Soviets' refusal to hand over the plane's flight records. Other commercial flights had made considerable course errors from time to time, but not over the Soviet Union.

While the KAL 007 plane, with a constant direction and speed not characteristic of a previous deliberate intrusion, was flying over Soviet territory, Su-15 and MiG-23 fighters were alerted. At the same time, a second signal appeared on Soviet radars, very close to the KAL. An American RC-135 spy plane was flying very close to the route of KAL 007, so the Soviets had two identical signals.

The RC-135 withdrew from the airspace at the same time that the KAL 007 began to cross the island of Sakhalin, passing very close to the atomic ballistic missile submarine base next to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, one of the two largest important of the USSR. He now appeared to be headed for the Pacific Fleet's main base in Vladivostok. This unfortunate coincidence is considered to have exacerbated the sense of threat to the Soviet military command. The Russians detected the passenger plane's signal while their interceptor planes made visual contact with the intruder.

Two Sukhoi SU-15s from the Dolinsk-Sokol air base intercepted the 747 approaching from behind and contacted the base for instructions. The pilot, Major Genadi Osipovich, was instructed to fire warning shots first, but they did not have tracer ammunition, so the cabin crew saw nothing. At that moment the Korean co-pilot requested to change altitude to level 350, which was interpreted by the Soviets as an evasive maneuver, forcing the attacking aircraft to perform a semicircle maneuver to return to position behind the target. The high command of the U.S.S.R. He then ordered the 747 to be shot down.

The Soviets shot down the plane with a simple attack with two missiles at 18:26 GMT. The 747 was hit in the tail and in the fuselage under the wings, causing cabin decompression, and then spiraled into the sea.

The 747 crashed into the sea approximately 55 km off Moneron Island and disintegration killed all on board. It was initially reported that the 747 had been forced to land in Sakhalin. This was later proven to be false.

The event caused international condemnation when it was learned that the defenseless KAL 007 had been shot down by the Soviets. The politburo reported that the airliner had violated Soviet airspace twice, statements that were not believed by South Korea or the United States since Captain Chun Byung-in was a very experienced pilot. An attempt was made to recover the black boxes but they were not found by the Americans or the South Koreans since they had been recovered by the Soviets previously and kept under lock and key.

The black boxes were delivered ten years later by the new Russian administration and the true cause of the accident was then known.

Transcripts recovered from the 747 cockpit indicate that the crew was unaware that they were off course and therefore violating Soviet airspace (they were ultimately 500 km west of the planned route). After the missile attack, the crew performed an authorized ascent and then emergency spiral descent due to rapid decompression from 18:26 until the end of recording at 18:27:46. However, Soviet authorities They denied any knowledge that they had recovered the information logs. They were only delivered after Boris Yeltsin's administration took power in Russia.

Two investigations were carried out by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The first was carried out after the accident and the second occurred after the records were handed over in 1991, eight years later.

Both concluded that the course was set by accident; the autopilot would have been programmed to go off course in heading mode or the INS would have been turned on when they would be out of range. This left the craft in the chosen magnetic direction when it left Anchorage. The crew did not notice this error or compromised correct INS checks only to discover it later due to a "lack of situational awareness and flight coordination."

The closest witness to the incident, the Soviet pilot who fired the Kaliningrad R-8 air-to-air missiles, later confirmed that international interception standards were not followed, and that he had been instructed by military authorities to lie. on television about firing warning shots. The Soviet side officially maintained that they made radio calls, but that KAL 007 did not respond. However, no other ground-based device or monitor covering the emergency frequencies at that time ever heard Soviet radio calls.

The Soviet pilot also did not argue that he had indeed identified the plane as a passenger plane, since it had to be illuminated and flash position lights like any civil plane.

Later reviews indicated that the true nature of the attack was that the day before an American RC-135 spy plane of the United States Air Force (USAF), had entered the area, taking the same route as the KAL, It was detected by Soviet radars and left the restricted space before it could be intercepted by SU-15 fighters. RC-135 was probably there that day at that time, but that information has never been released by the US government.

By the time the Korean aircraft appeared, the next day, the Soviets believed that it was the same plane, and the USAF RC-135 actually appeared and approached the KAL to be confused by its radar signal. The SU-15s took off and intercepted him coming from behind. Whether the American plane had already apparently disengaged or was subsequently shot down is a mystery. The SU-15 approached from the tail of the KAL, thinking it was the American spy plane because it presented a visually similar profile. Once the order was confirmed and without giving any opportunity before he left the restricted airspace, he shot to kill.

In 1997, a retired Japanese intelligence agent, Iosiro Tanaka, published a book titled 'The Truth About Flight KAL 007'. On his pages he confirmed that the crew of the downed plane were indeed carrying out a mission commissioned by the American special services. It was he personally who directed the listening of radio communications in the sky of the Russian Far East on the night of August 31 to September 1, 1983.

Other investigations carried out by amateurs related the nature of the attack to the flight that an American RC-135 spy plane had made the day before. That military aircraft crossed the border of the USSR, entered its territory following the same route that the South Korean Boeing followed later and escaped unpunished after turning towards Japan.^{[citation required]}

Another claim given is that the night of the incident had been a particularly tense time for the Soviet air defense forces as an American SR-71 conducted a spy flight in coordination with other American aircraft (probably the RC-135) and a Big Bird spy satellite.^{[citation needed]}

Political response

US President Ronald Reagan condemned the September 1 incident, calling it the 'Korean Air Massacre', a 'crime against humanity [that] must never be forgotten'; and an "act of barbarism... [of] inhuman and cowardly brutality." The next day, the Soviet Union admitted shooting down KAL 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a passenger plane when it violated Soviet airspace.

The attack strained relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and could well have caused a war with terrible consequences. South Korea was very concerned, especially its civilian population, about this downing of the passenger plane.

On September 15, President Reagan ordered the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to revoke the permission of Aeroflot – Russian Airlines (Russian: Аэрофло́т-Росси́йские авиали́нии) to operate flights in and out of the United States. As a result, Aeroflot flights to North America were only available through its hubs in Canada or Mexico. Aeroflot service to the United States was not restored until April 29, 1986.

The American ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick, made an audiovisual presentation at the Security Council using tapes of Soviet radio conversations and a map of the plane's flight path to describe the shootdown as savage and unjustified by part of the Soviet Union.

Due to this incident, Ronald Reagan announced that the GPS system would be available for civilian purposes once it was completed.

A tense period, a sensitive area: the crisis area

In 1983, then-President of the United States Ronald Reagan had recently been elected as such. He embodied a right-wing, republican, uncompromising country. Opposite him, Yuri Andropov, the then president of the Soviet Union, had just replaced Brezhnev. Initially presented as a reformer, due to his fight against corruption, this man was the former head of the KGB, a tough communist and loyal to the party line. Despite some negotiations between the two countries, both continued their arms race.

The region that the Boeing KAL 007 flew over was of primary importance to the Soviet Union. This area, between the Kamchatka Peninsula, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Archipelago and Vladivostok Bay, has represented one of the most important concentrations of Russian defense forces in the Soviet era and the current one: a third of the country's armed forces have been stationed there. There were 1,700 planes, 765 ships and 120 submarines, among which there were units equipped with nuclear missiles that could reach any point in the United States territory.

Revelations in 2015

On December 24, 2015, declassified files from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have revealed that two months after the shootdown, a senior official from the United States Administration informed Japanese diplomats that the incident had happened due to mistake. The White House was aware that the Soviet military mistook the commercial flight for a spy plane raid. Meanwhile, at an official level Washington insisted for decades that the Soviets had intentionally destroyed the aircraft, causing the immediate death of its 269 occupants.

The American official whose message was just published explained to the Japanese that "in the Soviet Union they confused this plane with an American aerial spy." As quoted by the TASS agency, he also noted that the US intended to employ & # 34; secret means & # 34; to find the black box of the downed 747 before the Russian sailors did. However, the USSR Navy beat them to the search. Only in 1992 did Russia hand over the decrypted materials from the black box to the South Koreans.

Filmography

This accident was featured on the Canadian television show Mayday: Air Disasters in the episode "Target Destroyed", and in Mayday: Special Report, titled "Explosive Evidence", broadcast on National Geographic Channel.

Media coverage

Journalists Serge Halimi and Pierre Rimbert critically analyze the attitude of the North American press, pointing out in particular a treatment of variable geometry compared to its coverage of the destruction by the United States of Iran Air Flight 655 (a downed civilian flight in 1988 with 290 deaths): "In the two weeks following the accident, the destruction of KAL 007 is covered two or three times more than Iran Air: 51 pages in Time and Newsweek in one case, 20 in the other; 286 articles, compared to 102 in the New York Times. After the Soviet attack, the covers of American magazines competed in indignation: "Air murder. A ruthless ambush" (Newsweek, September 13, 1983); "Shoot to kill. Atrocity in the sky. The Soviets get off a civilian plane" (Time, September 13, 1983); "Why Moscow did it" (Newsweek, September 19, 1983). But as soon as the fatal missile carries the star-spangled flag, the tone changes: there is no longer any question of atrocities and even less of intentionality. The record changes from active to passive, as if the massacre had no author: 'Why it happened', headline Newsweek (July 18, 1988). Time even prefers to reserve its coverage for space travel on Mars and relegate the air drama to internal pages, with the title: "What Went Wrong in the Gulf." The most common terms used in Washington Post and New York Times articles are, in one case, "brutal", "barbaric", "deliberate", " #34;criminal" and, in the other, "by mistake", "tragic", "fatal", "understandable", "justified". Even the gaze on the victims becomes confused or hardened depending on the identity of their murderer. Should we specify at this point to whom American journalists reserve the terms "innocent human beings", "moving personal stories", "loved ones" and those, more sober, of "passengers", "travelers" or "people who have died"?

In a comparative study of the two events published in 1991, political science professor Robert M. Entman noted that, in the case of the Soviet attack, the general framework chosen by the American media "insisted on the moral bankruptcy and culpability of the nation behind the shooting, while, in the second case, it reduced culpability and focused on the complex problems associated with military operations in which technology plays a key role.

Nationality	Victims
Australia	2
CanadaCanada	8
South KoreaSouth Korea	105 *
United States	62
Philippines	16
British Hong Kong	12
India	1
IranIran	1
JapanJapan	28
MalaysiaMalaysia	1
United KingdomUnited Kingdom	2
Republic of China (Taiwan)	23
Dominican RepublicDominican Republic	1
Sweden Sweden	1
Thailand	5
VietnamVietnam	1
Total	269
* 76 passengers, 29 crew members.