Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (also known as KAL007 and KE007[note 1]) was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage. On September 1, 1983, the airliner serving the flight was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor near Moneron Island, west of Sakhalin Island, in the Sea of Japan.
The interceptor's pilot was Major Gennadi Osipovich. All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed, including Lawrence McDonald, representative from Georgia in the United States House of Representatives. The aircraft was en route from Anchorage to Seoul when it flew through prohibited Soviet airspace around the time of a U.S. reconnaissance mission.
Former President Richard Nixon was to have been seated next to Larry McDonald on KAL 007 but decided not to go, according to the New York Post and TASS.[1]
The shooting of Korean Air Lines was one of the most tense moments of the Cold War. In the aftermath of the shooting, President Ronald Reagan made a presidential announcement,saying that what the Soviets did was bad.[2] Reagan was angry about what happened and changed his mind of making peace with the Soviets.
President Reagan announced on September 16, 1983, that the Global Positioning System (GPS) would be made available for civilian use.
| Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
 South Korea | 82 | 23 | 105 |
 United States | 62 | 0 | 62 |
 Japan | 28 | 0 | 28 |
 Taiwan | 23 | 0 | 23 |
 Philippines | 16 | 0 | 16 |
 Hong Kong | 12 | 0 | 12 |
 Canada | 8 | 0 | 8 |
 Germany | 4 | 0 | 4 |
 Thailand | 5 | 0 | 5 |
 France | 3 | 0 | 3 |
 Indonesia | 3 | 0 | 3 |
 United Kingdom | 2 | 0 | 2 |
 Australia | 2 | 0 | 2 |
 Italy | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Vietnam | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Malaysia | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 India | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Iran | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Spain | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Switzerland | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Dominican Republic | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Sweden | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Ireland | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Mexico | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Brazil | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 South Africa | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Portugal | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 246 | 23 | 269 |
Reason for shooting down
According to the World History Timeline, the Russians believed the jumbo jet was a United States spy plane. Four jet fighters were scrambled from the so-called Air Force Base. Two missiles were on target.[3]
One exploded just behind the tail of the plane, and the other by the left wing of the plane.
More Details About Shutting down
At 1:30 a.m., Flight 007 entered Soviet airspace. However, there was not much time for Flight 007 to hover over Kamchatka to respond, so the Soviet air defense squadron deployed on the Kamchatka Peninsula returned without attempting an interception, and Flight 007 passed through Soviet airspace at 2:28 am and disappeared from Soviet radar. As Flight 007 slowed down, gained altitude, and overshot, Osipovich, apparently thinking that he was trying to outwit him, circled around Flight 007 ag, flew 8 km behind Flight 007, and fired an R-98 air-to-air missile at around 3:25 ts.[4]
Causes of Airspace Violation
References
Books
- Regossi, Angelika (2024). Love in Communism: A Young Woman's Adult Story. FB Fantastic Bees Publishing. ISBN 9786158243544.
Notes
Other websites
- Soviet Air Force Transcripts Archived 2008-04-07 at the Wayback Machine, Airliners.net
- Bickel v. Korean Air Lines (case), Alt law, archived from the original on 2008-08-23, retrieved 2014-07-18.
- Hollie v. Korean Air Lines (case), Find law.
- "KAL Flight 007 25 years on", The First Post, UK, archived from the original on 2008-09-12, retrieved 2014-07-18.
- "Photos and first-person account of US-Soviet naval confrontation", USS Sterett, archived from the original on 2010-02-21, retrieved 2014-07-18.
