Flashback: Two Korean Air Lines Airliners Shot Down

Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was reportedly shot down over Ukraine yesterday. If this turns out to be true, it will be just one of more than a dozen plane crashes due to shots being fired.

Within six years, two Korean Air Lines flights were shot down by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s. Although more than a dozen airliner crashes have occurred due to missile strikes, the Korean Air Lines cases seem to be the two most well-known cases.

Korean Air Lines 902

Map by Kalflt902 via Wikimedia Commons

On April 20, 1978, Korean Air Lines flight 902 departed Paris, France for Seoul, South Korea. A little more than halfway into the flight, it planned to stop in Anchorage, Alaska to refuel.

During the flight, the course was changed, and now, the aircraft was headed southeast toward Murmansk, Russia.

The Boeing 707 did not have an inertial navigation system, and there was an error in calculating magnetic declination. The error caused the plane to fly in an enormous, right-turning arc.

It flew over the Soviet Union, and an interceptor was dispatched to investigate.

According to Soviet reports, the airliner repeatedly ignored commands to follow the interceptor. Though, tapes released helped us see that the captain of KAL902 transmitted a call signal three times immediately prior to being shot down and attempted to communicate with the intercepting pilot.

However, the interceptor was commanded to fire missiles at the jet, and the second one hit the left wing.

For 40 minutes, flight 902 searched for a place to land, and finally, it landed on the ice of the frozen Korpijarvi Lake in Karelian ASSR,

107 of the 109 passengers and crew survived the crash.

Korean Air Lines Flight 007

Map via Wikimedia Commons by Mgarin73

Korean Air Lines flight 007 departed from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage just before midnight on August 30, 1983.

On its final leg back to Seoul, the 747 strayed into Soviet airspace. It is believed that there was an incorrect setting on the plane’s autopilot. The aircraft began drifting off course, and it strayed into Soviet airspace.

Korean Air Lines flight 007 was shot down by a Sukhoi Su-15 fighter jet. Missiles hit the back of the plane and destroyed three of its four hydraulic systems. However, the plane continued to fly until it crashed into the ocean 12 minutes later.

All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed.

Many years after the crash, the Soviet pilot who pulled the trigger that day said he noticed that the aircraft had a double-decker configuration, and he had wondered if it was a civilian aircraft. However, he told CNN that he had “fulfilled his mission” to “destroy the intruder.” However, it later surfaced that no attempt was made to contact the airliner via radio which was against ICAO standards and recommended practices.

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