Korean Airlines Flight 007: Tragedy & Conspiracy? Pt Three

The passengers aboard Flight 007 were completely unaware of the drama taking place just outside their windows. Some would have covered themselves in blankets and dozed off. Others were waiting for the cabin crew to serve breakfast as the plane flew (supposedly) over Japan to South Korea. Most of the window shades would have still been down for the last part of the in-flight movie. The conversations on the flight deck also show how unaware the crew were of the danger they were in. They talked about upcoming vacations, customs procedures and the location and opening time of the airport currency exchange. The onboard inertial navigation system had failed to engage, either because the pilots had switched it on too late or because someone had flipped the switch to the wrong position.

At the moment, Captain Osipovich had attempted to catch 007's attention with cannon fire, Captain Chun was talking to air traffic control in Tokyo. He got permission to climb two thousand feet to an altitude of 37,000 feet, a normal fuel-saving excercise at this point in the flight. Osipovich interpreted this as an attempt to escape. With 007 heading out of Soviet airspace the generals on the ground were starting to panic. They could face severe consequences if they let a military target get away. There wasn't any time left to ID the target positively; Osipovich was running out of time and fuel. He had only 10 to 15 minutes of flying time left. In theory-and I do wonder why this wasn't tried earlier-perhaps because it had been assumed for so long that the intruder was military-with the Kurile Island incident in the very recent background?) Osipovich could have tried to reach the intruder on the internationally recognized emergency frequency-121.5 Megahertz. However, this meant Osipovich would lose communication with his ground controllers at this crucial time while he retuned his radio-and there was no time for that either.

At 6:21 AM Sakhalin time, just as dawn was arriving, KAL 007 was flying out of Soviet airspace. Kornukov had to make a final decision. His command was: "Fire missiles, fire on target six-zero-six-five, destroy target six-zero-six-five," and finally, "Carry out the task, destroy!" Bring one-six-three in behind Osipovich to guarantee destruction!" "Eight-zero-five, approach target and destroy target!" Osipovich spun around the still unidentified Boeing 747 and launched a heat-seeking missile. 2 seconds later he fired the radar-guided missile. "Launch executed," he radioed to the ground. It only took the missiles 35 seconds to cover the 5 miles between the two planes. Osipovich saw a burst of flame from the tail section. The navigation lights went out immediately. Initially, the plane appeared to climb but as Osipovich swung his jet to the right he could see the "target" falling into the sea. "The target is destroyed," he said in a voice filled with excitement. At the time Osipovich thought he had fulfilled the dream of his career: shooting down a hostile military target.

The destruction of KAL 007 was an enormous gift for President Reagan and the conservative movement in the United States. They could not have asked for a better incident to help label the USSR the "Evil Empire." The Soviets didn't help themselves by denying for almost a week what had happened. The first statement issued by the Soviet news agency TASS-that the plane was flying "without navigation lights," and that the Soviet interceptors had tried to guide the plane to the "nearest airfield" among others were easily destroyed when the Americans simply played a tape of exchanges between Sakahalin ground control and Osipovich to a solemn session of the UN Security Council.

Yuri Andropov had been in power less than 10 months at the time of the KAL incident. He was not a particularly vibrant man on becoming General Secretary, and now after his health eroded at an even faster pace and he was besieged by enormous responsibilities, the new Soviet leader looked like a skeleton. Even his longtime colleagues had trouble recognizing him. Andropov spent much of his time in a hospital that catered to the Soviet higher-ups. His room was a mess of cluttered medical equipment and Kremlin telephones. Andropov sat in a modified dentist's chair with a high headrest that allowed him to shift his position at the touch of a button. His kidneys ceased to function completely in the summer of 1983 and he had to be hooked up to a dialysis machine twice a week. To the average Russian citizen, General Secretary Andropov had become a rather ghostly prescence already-as if he had somehow got stuck on earth when he was supposed to have crossed over. They only heard from him through written statements labeled "from the Soviet leadership; a TASS communique or an interview in Pravda.

The Andropov era had gotten off to a good start in most Soviet citizens' minds-despite typical "dark" jokes such as greeting each other on New Years Day 1983 and saying "Happy New 1938!" -transposing the numbers of the year to signify one of the worst years of Stalin's purges and atrocities. After 18 years of glacial drift and stagnation under Brezhnev most Soviets welcomed change of any kind. They were impressed by Andropov's anti-corruption drive that targeted many former Brezhenev cronies and at the same time helped to glorify the image of the former KGB chief as a stern but just ruler who would get the country back on track and moving again. It appeared for a time that Russsian's finally had a real master -a khozyayin, who would restore dignity, honor, order and discipline to the Soviet Union. By the early 80s the Russian people were desperate for any strong leader. Many Russians acted warmly to even such token steps as a series of raids on Moscow bathhouses in the daytime to punish absenteeism from work. For the Communist Party elite, the sick old man in the dentist's chair was held in regard as the best of his generation.

Andropov's 15 years as the KGB chief had shown him what the true condition of the USSR was and also the extent that it lagged behind the West. In comparison to Brezhnev, Andropov was decisive and energetic. He definitely understood the need for change and was seriously considering new ideas. However, there was a very tough side to Andropov that knew "change" could only go so far-and only under the guidance of the Communist Party. The younger members of the Politburo who had not experienced war or revolution, as Andropov had, perhaps didn't realize that the key to Soviet power was only through the will of a ruthless minority to impose its will on the rest of the nation. In Andropov's mind reform was entirely necessary-but had to be very tightly guided and overseen. To be continued...

Still more to go -but I did get a lot done tonight-for me anway! Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! The first image is of a TIME magazine cover published shortly after the incident. The second image is a few of the faces of the victims of KAL 007.