These transcripts (of two reels of tape, each containing multiple tracks) are time specified, some to the second, of the communications between the various command posts and other military facilities on Sakhalin from the time of the initial orders for the shoot-down and then through the stalking of KAL007 by Major Osipovich in his Su-15 interceptor, the attack as seen and commented on by General Kornukov, Commander of Sokol Air Base, down the ranks to the Combat Controller Captain Titovnin. It is narrow at that point, the target was about to get away Then the ground [controller] gave the command: "Destroy the target!"

They were flying at 400km/h (249mph). At first Justice Department lawyer Jan Van Flatern stated that they were destroyed 15 days after the shoot-down. [112], Hans Ephraimson-Abt, whose daughter Alice Ephraimson-Abt had died on the flight, chaired the American Association for Families of KAL007 Victims. "[111], It is customary for the Air Force to impound radar trackings involving possible litigation in cases of aviation accidents. It is easy to turn a civilian type of plane into one for military use. The Soviets challenged many of the facts presented by the U.S., and revealed the previously unknown presence of a USAF RC-135 surveillance aircraft whose path had crossed that of KAL007. The ICAO concluded that these bodies, body parts and objects were carried from Soviet waters to the shores of Hokkaido by the southerly current west of Sakhalin Island. Although some evidence of human remains was noticed by the divers, they found no bodies. [It] has flown over Kamchatka! [26][27] According to the ICAO, the autopilot was not operating in the INS mode either because the crew did not switch the autopilot to the INS mode (as they should have shortly after Cairn Mountain), or they did select the INS mode, but the computer did not transition from "armed" to "capture" condition because the aircraft had already deviated off track by more than the 7.5 miles (12.1km) tolerance permitted by the inertial navigation computer. KAL007 continued its journey, ever increasing its deviation60 nautical miles (110km) off course at waypoint NABIE, 100 nautical miles (190km) off course at waypoint NUKKS, and 160 nautical miles (300km) off course at waypoint NEEVA until it reached the Kamchatka Peninsula. This was the incident of February 21, 1973, when Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by Israeli F-4 jets over the Sinai Peninsula. Whatever the reason, the autopilot remained in the HEADING mode, and the problem was not detected by the crew. [52] However, this only lasted for five minutes.

Immediately after the shoot-down, South Korea, owner of the aircraft and therefore prime considerant for jurisdiction, designated the United States and Japan as search and salvage agents, thereby making it illegal for the Soviet Union to salvage the aircraft, providing it was found outside Soviet territorial waters. In fact it was completely demolished, scattered about like kindling. On September 10, 1983, with no further hope of finding survivors, Task Force 71's mission was reclassified from a "Search and Rescue" (SAR) operation to a "Search and Salvage" (SAS). [69], On October 17, Rear Admiral Walter T. Piotti, Jr. took command of the task force and its search and salvage mission from Rear Admiral Cockell. [108], Following publication of the report, the ICAO adopted a resolution condemning the Soviet Union for the attack. I had always thought of that as poor taste. It [came] from the ocean without identification. [128], The transcripts include the post-attack flight of KAL007 until it had reached Moneron Island, the descent of KAL007 over Moneron, the initial Soviet SAR missions to Moneron, the futile search of the support interceptors for KAL007 on the water, and ending with the debriefing of Osipovich on return to base. If it did so, the United States would now be legally entitled to use force against the Soviets, if necessary, to prevent retrieval of any part of the plane. [63] International boundaries are not well defined on the open sea, leading to numerous confrontations between the large number of opposing naval ships that were assembled in the area. The northwesternmost point of the search touched the Soviet territorial boundary closest to the naval port of Nevelsk on Sakhalin. At 18:27:20, ICAO graphing of Digital Flight Data Recorder tapes showed that after a descent phase and a 10 second "nose-up", KAL007 was leveled out at pre-missile detonation altitude of 35,000ft (11,000m), forward acceleration was back to pre-missile detonation rate of zero acceleration, and air speed had returned to pre-detonation velocity. That's exactly what happened. For all the good it did. It had exceeded its expected maximum deviation sixfold, 2 nautical miles (3.7km) of error being the maximum expected drift from course if the inertial navigation system was activated.[28]. Significant command and control problems were experienced trying to vector the fast military jets onto the 747 before they ran out of fuel. [79], Eight days after the shoot-down, human remains and other types of objects appeared on the north shore of Hokkaido, Japan. [58] Upon missile detonation, the jumbo jet began to experience oscillations (yawing) as the dual channel yaw damper was damaged. [65] It ended acrimoniously, with Shultz stating: "Foreign Minister Gromyko's response to me today was even more unsatisfactory than the response he gave in public yesterday. The Soviet side also employed both civilian and military divers. Another mother says, "I recognized them just like that. The fact that the recorders are in possession of the U.S.S.R. shall be kept secret As far as we are aware neither the U.S. nor Japan has any information on the flight recorders. These memos were published in the Soviet news magazine. With shells? [139] This deployment would have placed missiles just 610 minutes striking distance from Moscow. With wing flaps up, "control was reduced to the right inboard aileron and the innermost of spoiler section of each side". The first missile was radar-controlled and proximity fuzed, and detonated 50 metres (160ft) behind the aircraft. [99], Since the aircraft had departed from U.S. soil and U.S. nationals had died in the incident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was legally required to investigate. [26] After a protracted ground-controlled interception, the three Su-15 fighters (from nearby Dolinsk-Sokol airbase) and the MiG-23[40] (from Smirnykh Air Base) managed to make visual contact with the Boeing, but, owing to the black of night, failed to make critical identification of the aircraft which Russian communications reveal. The third memo acknowledges that analysis of the recorder tapes showed no evidence of the Soviet interceptor attempting to contact KAL007 via radio nor any indication that the KAL007 had been given warning shots. At 14:43UTC, KAL007 directly transmitted a change of estimated time of arrival for its next waypoint, NEEVA, to the international flight service station at Anchorage,[30] but it did so over the longer range high frequency radio (HF) rather than VHF. Then, I had an idea. [125] Initial South Korean research showed the FDR to be empty and the CVR to have an unintelligible copy. [29] Halfway between Bethel and waypoint NABIE, KAL007 passed through the southern portion of the North American Aerospace Defense Command buffer zone. After taking off from Anchorage, the flight was instructed by air traffic control (ATC) to turn to a heading of 220 degrees. [98] Instead, the Soviet Union blamed the CIA for this "criminal, provocative act". The US accused the Soviet Union of obstructing search and rescue operations. The HEADING mode maintained a constant magnetic course selected by the pilot. We had already flown over the island [Sakhalin]. [78], Nothing was found by the joint U.S.JapaneseSouth Korean search and rescue/salvage operations in international waters at the designated crash site or within the 225-square-nautical-mile (770km2) search area. Rapid compressions. A high level U.S.Soviet summit, the first in nearly a year, was scheduled for September 8, 1983, in Madrid. The area within Soviet territorial waters was off-limits to the U.S., South Korean, and Japanese boats. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, The flight number KAL007 was used by air traffic control, while the public flight booking system used KE 007, The last plotted radar position of the target was 18:35 hours at 5,000meters." [35] On the Soviet side, RYAN was expanded. General Kornukov (to Military District Headquarters-Gen. Kamensky): (5:47) "simply destroy [it] even if it is over neutral waters? The Soviet real-time military communication transcripts of the shoot-down suggest the chain of command from the top general to Major Osipovich, the Su-15 interceptor pilot who shot down KAL007. The Boeing did not break up, explode, or plummet immediately after the attack; it continued its gradual descent for four minutes, then leveled off at 16,424ft (5,006m) (18:3018:31UTC), rather than continuing to descend to 10,000ft (3,000m) as previously reported to Tokyo Area Control Center. Immediately after missile detonation, the airliner began a 113-second arc upward because of a damaged crossover cable between the left inboard and right outboard elevators.[49]. Initial reports that the airliner had been forced to land on Sakhalin were soon proven false[citation needed]. [105], The report included a statement by the Soviet Government claiming "no remains of the victims, the instruments or their components or the flight recorders have so far been discovered". My speed was more than 400. Colonel Gerasimenko, Acting Commander, 41st Fighter Regiment. [53], KAL 007 was probably attacked in international airspace, with a 1993 Russian report listing the location of the missile firing outside its territory at 464627N 1413248E / 46.77417N 141.54667E / 46.77417; 141.54667 (KAL007),[35][54] although the intercepting pilot stated otherwise in a subsequent interview. [2] The Korean airliner eventually crashed in the sea near Moneron Island west of Sakhalin in the Sea of Japan. [note 3] The aircraft was last seen visually by Osipovich, "somehow descending slowly" over Moneron Island. [57], Though the interceptor pilot reported to ground control, "Target destroyed", the Soviet command, from general on down, indicated surprise and consternation at KAL007's continued flight, and ability to regain its altitude and maneuver. When the Soviet Union shot down Flight 007, the U.S. was able to galvanize enough support at home and abroad to enable the deployment to go ahead. In October 1992, Hans Ephraimson-Abt led a delegation of families and U.S. State Department officials to Moscow at the invitation of President Yeltsin. Corresponding Member of Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. Fedosov In 1986, the United States, Japan and the Soviet Union set up a joint air traffic control system to monitor aircraft over the North Pacific, thereby giving the Soviet Union formal responsibility to monitor civilian air traffic, and setting up direct communication links between the controllers of the three countries. It was therefore reopened on October 2 after safety and navigational aids were checked. The tapes were handed to ICAO in Paris on January 8, 1993. This memo stated "In the third decade of October this year the equipment in question (the recorder of in-flight parameters and the recorder of voice communications by the flight crew with ground air traffic surveillance stations and between themselves) was brought aboard a search vessel and forwarded to Moscow by air for decoding and translation at the Air Force Scientific Research Institute. Following the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., Ephraimson-Abt persuaded U.S. On October 21, Task Force 71 extended its search within coordinates encompassing, in an arc around the Soviet territorial boundaries north of Moneron Island, an area of 225 square miles (583km2), reaching to the west of Sakhalin Island. No wreckage of KAL007 was found. The following damage to the aircraft was determined by the ICAO from its analysis of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder: KAL007 had four redundant hydraulic systems of which systems one, two, and three were damaged or destroyed. [4] The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union said it was a deliberate provocation by the United States[5] to probe the Soviet Union's military preparedness, or even to provoke a war. The HF 1 radio aerial of the aircraft was positioned in the left wing tip suggesting that the left wing tip was intact at this time. As for the restbroken into tiny pieces[41], According to Izvestia, the divers had only ten encounters with passenger remains (tissues and body parts) in the debris area, including one partial torso. Lieutenant-General Engineer Tichomirov [20] United States Congressman Larry McDonald from Georgia, who at the time was also the second president of the conservative John Birch Society, was on the flight. Family members of KAL 007 passengers later stated that these shoes were worn by their loved ones for the flight. The VOR/LOC mode maintained the plane on a specific course, transmitted from a VOR (VHF omnidirectional range, a type of short-range radio signal transmitted from ground beacons) or Localizer (LOC) beacon selected by the pilot. D. Ustinov, V. Chebrikov (photo)[note 5] December 1983. "The border guards. "[129], Two expert witnesses testified at a trial before then Magistrate Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. "We saw photos of his shoes in a magazine," says Oldham, "We followed up through KAL and a few weeks later, a package arrived.

[26], The regular air route between Seoul and Moscow started in April 1990 as the result of the Nordpolitik policy of South Korea, operated by Aeroflot and Korean Air; meanwhile, all 9 of Korean Air's European routes would start passing through Soviet airspace. Once that happened, the INS mode would change from "armed" to "capture" and the plane would track the flight-planned course from then on. It's doubtful whether anyone could see them. [4], In a comparative study of the two tragedies published in 1991, political scientist Robert Entman points out that with KAL 007, "the angle taken by the US media emphasised the moral bankruptcy and guilt of the perpetrating nation. Nevelsk was 46 nautical miles (85km) from Moneron. U.S. underwater operations began on September 14. [140], The unprecedented disclosure of the communications intercepted by the United States and Japan revealed a considerable amount of information about their intelligence systems and capabilities. [43], We shot down the plane legally Later we began to lie about small details: the plane was supposedly flying without running lights or strobe light, that tracer bullets were fired, or that I had radio contact with them on the emergency frequency of 121.5 megahertz. The result is that the control column did not thrust forward upon impact (it should have done so as the plane was on autopilot) to bring down the plane to its former altitude of 35,000 feet (11,000m). CTF75/N32:kpm,4730, Ser 011, November 15, 1983). 1, pp.

I am giving the order to attack if it crosses the State border. (ICAO '93, p. 53, para. The decrease in speed caused the pursuing fighter to overshoot the Boeing and was interpreted by the Soviet pilot as an evasive maneuver. The U.S. adopted a strategy of releasing a substantial amount of hitherto highly classified intelligence information in order to exploit a major propaganda advantage over the Soviet Union. When KAL007 was about 130 kilometres (81mi) from the Kamchatka coast, four MiG-23 fighters were scrambled to intercept the Boeing 747.[26]. Yawing would not have occurred if hydraulic systems one or two were fully operational. The autopilot computer software commanded the INS mode to remain in the "armed" condition until the plane had moved to a position less than 7.5 miles (12.1km) from the desired course line. A 1993 official enquiry by the Russian Federation absolved the Soviet hierarchy of blame, determining that the incident was a case of mistaken identity. Approximately 90 seconds later, ATC directed the flight to "proceed direct Bethel when able". [37] In his explanation to 60 Minutes, Zuyev stated: Some people lied to Moscow, trying to save their ass.[38]. My daughter loved to wear them.

[128], The data from the CVR and the FDR revealed that the recordings broke off after the first minute and 44seconds of KAL007's post missile detonation 12minute flight. CTF75/N32:kpm,4730, Ser 011, November 15, 1983), After Action Report (Department of the Navy, Commander, Surface Combat Force Seventh Fleet. ", Morgan, Craig A.

The fact that both recorder tapes stopped exactly at the same time 1minute and 44seconds after missile detonation (18:38:02 UTC) without the tape portions for the more than 10 minutes of KAL007's post detonation flight before it descended below radar tracking (18:38 UTC) finds no explanation in the ICAO analysis: "It could not be established why both flight recorders simultaneously ceased to operate 104 seconds after the attack. The crew then lost all control.

KAL007's airspeed and acceleration rate both began to decrease as the plane began to climb. I did not miss a single dive. [65] Eight days after the shoot-down, Marshal of the Soviet Union and Chief of General Staff Nikolai Ogarkov denied knowledge of where KAL007 had gone down; "We could not give the precise answer about the spot where it [KAL007] fell because we ourselves did not know the spot in the first place. First drag everything haphazardly around the bottom by the trawls, and then send in the submersibles?It is clear that things should have been done in the reverse order. A number of civilian divers, whose first dive was on September 15, two weeks after the shoot-down, state that Soviet military divers and trawls had been at work before them: Diver Vyacheslav Popov: "As we learned then, before us the trawlers had done some 'work' in the designated quadrant. In my opinion, the intruder's intentions were plain. "[42] Osipovich stated, "I did not tell the ground that it was a Boeing-type plane; they did not ask me."[41][42]. [114], Glasnost reforms in the same year brought about a relaxation of press censorship; consequently reports started to appear in the Soviet press suggesting that the Soviet military knew the location of the wreckage and had possession of the flight data recorders. I was simply unable to fly slower. Passenger pain and suffering was an important factor in determining the level of compensation that was paid by Korean Air Lines. The aircrew had an unusually high ratio of crew to passengers, as six deadheading crew were on board. Though the autopilot had been turned off, manual mode did not begin functioning for another twenty seconds. I have a lock on. [106] This statement was subsequently shown to be untrue by Boris Yeltsin's release in 1993 of a November 1983 memo from KGB head Viktor Chebrikov and Defence Minister Dmitriy Ustinov to Yuri Andropov. According to one theory, right after the detonation of the rocket, the nose and tail section of the jumbo fell off and the mid-fuselage became a sort of wind tunnel so the people were swept through it and scattered over the surface of the ocean. [62] The flight data recorders were the key pieces of evidence sought by both governments, with the United States insisting that an independent observer from the ICAO be present on one of its search vessels in the event that they were found. Fragments from the proximity fuzed air-to-air missile that detonated 50 metres (160ft) behind the aircraft, punctured the fuselage and caused rapid decompression of the pressurised cabin. The Anchorage VOR beacon was not operational at the time, as it was undergoing maintenance. [89], In a 2015 interview Igor Kirillov, the senior Soviet news anchor, said that he was initially given a printed TASS report to announce over the news on September 1, which included an "open and honest" admission that the plane was shot down by mistake (a wrong judgement call by the Far Eastern Air Defence Command). These fears culminated in RYAN, the code name for a secret intelligence-gathering program initiated by Andropov to detect a potential nuclear sneak attack which he believed Reagan was plotting. Instead, the unidentified jetliner crossed over the Kamchatka Peninsula back into international airspace over the Sea of Okhotsk without being intercepted. In connection with all mentioned above it seems highly preferable not to transfer the flight recorders to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) or any third party willing to decipher their contents. HF transmissions are able to carry a longer distance than VHF, but are vulnerable to electromagnetic interference and static; VHF is clearer with less interference, and preferred by flight crews. [118] This legislation has had far reaching effects for the victims of subsequent aircraft disasters. This is how I recognized them. [65][87] Some commentators believe that the inept manner in which the political events were handled by the Soviet government[88] was affected by the failing health of Andropov, who was permanently hospitalised in late September or early October 1983 (Andropov died the following February). You see, there are all kinds of inconspicuous marks which strangers do not notice. The inability to establish direct radio communications to be able to transmit their position directly did not alert the pilots of KAL007 of their ever-increasing divergence[28] and was not considered unusual by air traffic controllers. [150], Korean Air still flies from New York JFK International Airport to Seoul. The following month, the ICAO voted to reopen the KAL007 investigation in order to take the newly released information into account. Major-General of Aviation Stepanov Ram it? However, the operation established, with a 95% or above confidence level, that the wreckage, or any significant portion of the aircraft, does not lie within the probability area outside the 12 nautical mile area claimed by the Soviets as their territorial limit. "[78] John Oldham had taken his seat in row 31 of KAL007 wearing those cream white paint-spattered sneakers. [23], The HEADING mode of the autopilot would normally be engaged some time after takeoff to comply with vectors from ATC, and then after receiving appropriate ATC clearance, to guide the plane to intercept the desired INS course line.[23]. Moreover, the Soviet Union has blocked access to the likely crash site and has refused to cooperate with other interested parties, to ensure prompt recovery of all technical equipment, wreckage and other material.". [13]:13, In 1983, Cold War tensions between the United States and Soviet Union had escalated to a level not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis because of several factors. [95], An emergency session of the ICAO was held in Montreal, Canada. One of these reports conveyed via phone by Orville Brockman, the Washington office spokesman of the Federal Aviation Administration, to the press secretary of Larry McDonald, was that the FAA in Tokyo had been informed by the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau that "Japanese self-defense force radar confirms that the Hokkaido radar followed Air Korea to a landing in Soviet territory on the island of Sakhalinska and it is confirmed by the manifest that Congressman McDonald is on board". Had this radar been operational, it would have enabled an intercept of the stray airliner roughly two hours earlier with plenty of time for proper identification as a civilian aircraft. Sending fragments forward, it either severed or unraveled the crossover cable from the left inboard elevator to the right elevator. The pilot of the lead Su-15 fighter fired warning shots with its cannon, but recalled later in 1991, "I fired four bursts, more than 200 rounds. National Security Agency director Lincoln D. Faurer commented: "as a result of the Korean Air Lines affair, you have already heard more about my business in the past two weeks than I would desire For the most part this has not been a matter of unwelcome leaks. 2.15.8). [146] Some of these statements were contradicted by the pilot in an interview with The New York Times,[42] in which he confirmed that he did fire warning shots, but that they would not have been visible as they were not tracers. Now being controlled manually, the plane began to descend to 35,000 feet (11,000m). The Soviet search, beginning on the day of the shoot-down and continuing until November 6, was confined to the 60-square-mile (160km2) "high probability" area in international waters, and within Soviet territorial waters to the north of Moneron Island. But for me this meant nothing. Yaw oscillations, begun at the time of missile detonation, continued decreasingly until the end of the 1 minute 44 second section of the tape. On the morning of September 1, the NTSB chief in Alaska, James Michelangelo, received an order from the NTSB in Washington at the behest of the State Department requiring all documents relating to the NTSB investigation to be sent to Washington, and notifying him that the State Department would now conduct the investigation.[100]. In November 1992, President Yeltsin handed the two recorder containers to Korean President Roh Tae-Woo, but not the tapes themselves. These multi-track communications from various command posts telecommunicating at the same minute and seconds as other command posts were communicating provide a "composite" picture of what was taking place.