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.
The full article is HERE, from the History Channel.
There are STILL multiple arguments over what really happened, now 34 years later. Sadly, there are still 269 dead, due to the incident, and the Soviet paranoia… Yes there was an RC-135 up earlier, in that area, but it was long gone. And KAL 007 would have been on the Soviet’s radar for a LONG time…
Personally, as a former navigator that used LTN-72s, I think they missed the capture gate at Bethel, and the autopilot never got the steering corrections from the inertial at the start of Red 20. If they never had XTE selected on the primary inertial, they didn’t realize how far off course they were. On a night flight, there aren’t a lot of lights in that part of the world to give you spatial awareness.
Perhaps the most reasonable explanation of the track error. They wouldn’t have been the first aircraft to go wandering off into the weeds following their automation, and they certainly aren’t the last
+1
Hanlon’s Razor.
+1
Oh yes. I’ve had GPS, RNAV, LORAN, and other things try to send me places I’d rather not go. Distrust, verify, and have a back-up or three.
Hey Old NFO;
And there was a Georgia congressman on board, one of the few conservatives from the state. His name was Larry McDonald. Some GA history for you, and some tinfoil conspiracy theories have been floating around since.
Right, Bob. And there was a big uproar here in GA claiming they were shot down because Larry was on the flight.
Ian/WSF/Brig/TxRed- Yep, problem was, they had three, one master and two slaves, all tied together… Per their SOP at the time.
Bob/CP- Yeah, I remember that crap load… sigh…
We were on takeoff roll at Kadena, scheduled for some PI fighter work. Command post called and said, turn right instead of left and head north.
Our E3 was on station and flying high cover for the SAR efforts.
We weren’t sure if it would tuen into a shooting war or not.
We tanked 3 times and completed my longest mission ever 18.3 hours. Crapper was full and we were hungry and thirsty at the end of it.
Our TDY was extended two more weeks and we used up all our flight hours for the month. Had to take a break on Hawaii on the way back to Oklahoma City.
Lotta work and fun.