When this tragedy occurred, a US Air Force plane was on a reconnaissance mission nearby. It was attempting to observe a Soviet missile test on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The US spy plane was being monitored by Soviet operators. It is likely that, at some point, the civilian aircraft was misidentified as the spy plane, which is why the Soviets shot it down. Initially, the Soviets denied all responsibility for the incident. When the US presented intercepted radio communications, they admitted to downing the plane. The Soviet government said that the pilots had no way of knowing that it was a passenger jet, and some high-ranking officials maintained that the KAL flight was indeed involved in espionage activities.
The US government reacted with horror and used the disaster to promote anti-Soviet sentiment. Reagan decried the incident as a “massacre” and “an act of barbarism.” His administration responded by suspending all Soviet passenger flights to the US, and by abandoning agreements that were being negotiated with the Soviet Union. The Department of State initially claimed that the Soviets knowingly and purposefully downed an unarmed civilian aircraft. Later, US and Soviet intelligence agencies privately agreed that the incident was a tragic misunderstanding, and the Soviets had likely misidentified the plane as the reconnaissance aircraft. In public, however, US officials maintained that it was a horrific and intentional act. This increased American distrust and hostility towards Soviets, especially because it was the second time that Soviets had shot at a passenger plane (another KAL flight was attacked in 1978, but that plane made an emergency landing and only 2 people died).
Although this is the most widely accepted explanation, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding what happened to KAL flight 007. It is unknown how exactly the plane ended up so far from its planned course. Also, the Soviet Union refused to reveal whether it found the plane's wreckage or any survivors or bodies. Because of the lack of definitive answers, many conspiracy theories arose. One theory suggests that the plane landed in Russia and the passengers were imprisoned, while another theory claims that the plane was on a spy mission and was disguised as a commercial aircraft. Even though there is no reliable evidence for such theories, they have continued to persist.
I found this article very informative and interesting, especially as I hadn't heard of it. The Korean Air Lines Flight 007 traveling from New York City to Seoul was a Boeing 747-230B passenger plane, registered as HL7442. In total, as you mentioned, there were 269 occupants on board, with 246 passengers, 63 of whom Americans and 23 crewmembers. The interceptor that mistakenly shot it down was a Sukhoi Su-15, a twinjet supersonic interceptor aircraft developed by the Soviet Union. Following the incident, on September 5, 1983, President Reagan denoted incident as the "Korean airline massacre", a "crime against humanity [that] must never be forgotten".
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007#Post-attack_flight
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russias-su-15-fighter-made-history-one-very-tragic-way-20201