Okla-homey
9/1/2008, 07:14 AM
September 1, 1983: Korean Airlines flight shot down by Red Air Force
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/8825/kor1228923568aa5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
25 years ago today, a pair of Soviet Su-15 interceptors engage a Korean Airlines 747 in Russian airspace and shoot the plane down, killing 269 passengers and crewmembers. The incident dramatically increased tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3787/su15gk2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Su-15. Backbone of the Soviet interceptor fleet from twenty years. Retired and replaced in 1986 by MiG-31's.
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 scrambled two interceptors from the Soviet equivalent of the US Air Defense Command (Voyska-PVO) to intercept the 747.
According to tapes of the conversations between the air defense 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 two-ship of SU-15 interceptors fired a single missile. KAL 007 was hit and plummeted into the Sea of Japan. All 269 people on board were killed.
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/3552/draftlens1753834module9zd9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
This was not the first time a South Korean flight had run into trouble over Russia. In 1978, the Soviets forced a passenger jet down over Murmansk; two passengers were killed during the emergency landing.
In its first public statement concerning the September 1983 incident, the Soviet government merely noted that an unidentified aircraft had been shot down flying over Russian territory.
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/358/pg21jw9.gif (http://imageshack.us)
This Soviet AF spokesman tried his best to be convincing, but the world knew better. Best guess is they mistook the Korean 747 for an RC-135
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/919/26042982sq2.png (http://imageshack.us)
Not pretty, but its massive twin Tumansky J-15 engines did a superb job of turning dead dinosaurs into thrust making it very fast. As one of the V-PVO's principal interceptors, the Su-15 was involved in a number of incidents with foreign aircraft. One such attack was in 1978, when Korean Air Flight 902 was attacked over Murmansk by a PVO Su-15. Although the civilian aircraft survived the missile hit, two passengers were killed, and the damaged plane subsequently made a forced landing on a frozen lake. In 1981 a Baku, Azerbaijan-based Su-15 deliberately rammed an Iranian Canadair CL-44 after it strayed into Soviet airspace.
The United States government reacted with horror to the disaster. The Department of State suggested that the Soviets knew the plane was an unarmed civilian passenger aircraft. President Ronald Reagan called the incident a "massacre" and issued a statement in which he declared that the Soviets had turned "against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among people everywhere."
Five days after the incident, the Soviets admitted that the plane had indeed been a passenger jet, but that Russian pilots had no way of knowing this. A high ranking Soviet military official stated that the KAL flight had been involved in espionage activities. The Reagan administration responded by suspending all Soviet passenger air service to the United States, and dropped several agreements being negotiated with the Soviets.
Despite the heated public rhetoric, many Soviets and American officials and analysts privately agreed that the incident was simply a tragic SNAFU. The KAL flight had veered into a course that was close to one being simultaneously flown by a SAC RC-135 that routinely skirted Soviet airspace allowing its onboard sensors to suck up electronic and other data; perhaps Soviet radar operators mistook the two.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/2310/rjpainting3sep05cc4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
RC-135
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/2520/kal0077472nh6.png (http://imageshack.us)
KAL-007 in its final minutes
In the Soviet Union, several of the military officials responsible for air defense in the Far East were fired or demoted. It has never been determined how the KAL flight ended up nearly 200 miles off course.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/8825/kor1228923568aa5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
25 years ago today, a pair of Soviet Su-15 interceptors engage a Korean Airlines 747 in Russian airspace and shoot the plane down, killing 269 passengers and crewmembers. The incident dramatically increased tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3787/su15gk2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Su-15. Backbone of the Soviet interceptor fleet from twenty years. Retired and replaced in 1986 by MiG-31's.
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 scrambled two interceptors from the Soviet equivalent of the US Air Defense Command (Voyska-PVO) to intercept the 747.
According to tapes of the conversations between the air defense 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 two-ship of SU-15 interceptors fired a single missile. KAL 007 was hit and plummeted into the Sea of Japan. All 269 people on board were killed.
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/3552/draftlens1753834module9zd9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
This was not the first time a South Korean flight had run into trouble over Russia. In 1978, the Soviets forced a passenger jet down over Murmansk; two passengers were killed during the emergency landing.
In its first public statement concerning the September 1983 incident, the Soviet government merely noted that an unidentified aircraft had been shot down flying over Russian territory.
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/358/pg21jw9.gif (http://imageshack.us)
This Soviet AF spokesman tried his best to be convincing, but the world knew better. Best guess is they mistook the Korean 747 for an RC-135
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/919/26042982sq2.png (http://imageshack.us)
Not pretty, but its massive twin Tumansky J-15 engines did a superb job of turning dead dinosaurs into thrust making it very fast. As one of the V-PVO's principal interceptors, the Su-15 was involved in a number of incidents with foreign aircraft. One such attack was in 1978, when Korean Air Flight 902 was attacked over Murmansk by a PVO Su-15. Although the civilian aircraft survived the missile hit, two passengers were killed, and the damaged plane subsequently made a forced landing on a frozen lake. In 1981 a Baku, Azerbaijan-based Su-15 deliberately rammed an Iranian Canadair CL-44 after it strayed into Soviet airspace.
The United States government reacted with horror to the disaster. The Department of State suggested that the Soviets knew the plane was an unarmed civilian passenger aircraft. President Ronald Reagan called the incident a "massacre" and issued a statement in which he declared that the Soviets had turned "against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among people everywhere."
Five days after the incident, the Soviets admitted that the plane had indeed been a passenger jet, but that Russian pilots had no way of knowing this. A high ranking Soviet military official stated that the KAL flight had been involved in espionage activities. The Reagan administration responded by suspending all Soviet passenger air service to the United States, and dropped several agreements being negotiated with the Soviets.
Despite the heated public rhetoric, many Soviets and American officials and analysts privately agreed that the incident was simply a tragic SNAFU. The KAL flight had veered into a course that was close to one being simultaneously flown by a SAC RC-135 that routinely skirted Soviet airspace allowing its onboard sensors to suck up electronic and other data; perhaps Soviet radar operators mistook the two.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/2310/rjpainting3sep05cc4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
RC-135
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/2520/kal0077472nh6.png (http://imageshack.us)
KAL-007 in its final minutes
In the Soviet Union, several of the military officials responsible for air defense in the Far East were fired or demoted. It has never been determined how the KAL flight ended up nearly 200 miles off course.