Korean Air Lines Flight 007
HL7442, the aircraft involved in the shootdown, photographed in 1980 | |
| Shootdown | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1 September 1983 |
| Summary | Shot down by the Soviet Air Defense Forces after navigation error by the pilots |
| Site | Sea of Japan, near Moneron Island, west of Sakhalin Island, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union 46°34′N 141°17′E / 46.567°N 141.283°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 747-230B |
| Operator | Korean Air Lines |
| IATA flight No. | KE007 |
| ICAO flight No. | KAL007 |
| Call sign | KOREAN AIR 007 |
| Registration | HL7442 |
| Flight origin | John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, U.S. |
| Stopover | Anchorage International Airport, Anchorage, Alaska, U.S. |
| Destination | Kimpo International Airport, Kangso District, Seoul, South Korea |
| Occupants | 269 |
| Passengers | 246[1] |
| Crew | 23[note 1] |
| Fatalities | 269 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KE007/KAL007)[note 2] was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage, Alaska. On September 1, 1983, the flight was shot down by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15TM Flagon-F interceptor aircraft. The Boeing 747-230B airliner was en route from Anchorage to Seoul, but owing to a navigational mistake made by the crew, the airliner drifted from its planned route and flew through Soviet airspace. The Soviet Air Forces treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding U.S. spy plane, and destroyed it with air-to-air missiles, after firing warning shots. The South Korean airliner eventually crashed into the sea near Moneron Island west of Sakhalin in the Sea of Japan, killing all 246 passengers and 23 crew aboard, including Larry McDonald, a United States representative. It is the worst Korean Air disaster to date.
The Soviet Union initially denied knowledge of the incident,[2] but later admitted to shooting down the aircraft, claiming that it was on a MASINT spy mission.[3] The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union said it was a deliberate provocation by the United States[4] to probe the Soviet Union's military preparedness, or even to provoke a war. The U.S. accused the Soviet Union of obstructing search and rescue operations.[5] The Soviet Armed Forces suppressed evidence sought by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) investigation, such as the flight recorders,[6] which were released in 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[7]
As a result of the incident, the United States altered tracking procedures for aircraft departing from Alaska, and President Ronald Reagan issued a directive making American satellite-based radio navigation Global Positioning System freely available for civilian use, once it was sufficiently developed, as a common good.[8]
- ^ Aviation Safety Database
- ^ Young & Launer, pp. xiii, 47
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Sputnikwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Pearson, p. 145
- ^ Congressional Record, September 20, 1983, pp. S12462–S12464
- ^ Soviet news magazine, Izvestia #228, October 16, 1992
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
tapeswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "United States Updates Global Positioning System Technology". America.gov. February 3, 2006. Archived from the original on October 9, 2013. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).