Sept 1, 1983, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner they claimed had strayed into Soviet airspace. Coincidentally, one of the passengers who died was possibly the most conservative, most anti-communist, most anti-Soviet member of Congress. Rep Larry McDonald, Democrat from Georgia.
Rep. McDonald dies when Soviets shoot down Boeing 747, Sept. 1, 1983 - POLITICO
In the early 90's I piloted a military ISR plane (ISR = Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance = Spy Plane) from South Korea to Selma, Alabama for some major depot level repair. The first leg of the flight was from South Korea to Shemya, an Aleutian island that at the time was an active U.S Air Force base. Almost all of the flight was along a path that put Russia just outside the right cockpit window, within 20 nautical miles of Soviet airspace at the one point.
By the way Sheyma was a site to see. It looked exactly like this picture the morning after we arrived. At the time of arrival it was much worse, ink black darkness, 35 knt direct cross wind - gusting to 45 knts, heavy snow blowing sideways, ceiling and visibility down to absolute minimums for the ILS approach! That place must have been a hellish assignment for the Air Force folks.
As the flight was along the same path as KAL 007 and those pilots had been using an INS (inertial navigation system) exactly like the one installed in our plane, I took great interest in the story and did some pre-flight research into it. I remember reading that the Soviet's had altered the recording of the pilot to ground control comms they released to the international media. Faked it to remove the fact that one of the Soviets had expressed concern that the target might be a commercial airliner, that KAL 007 actually had all it's navigation lights/beacons activated and had actually exited Soviet airspace and was in international airspace at the time of the shoot down.
Communists are going to Communist....always! In fact all the navigation charts at the time had big warning statements on them reminding pilots that the Soviets were known to send strong navigation signals from within their country that were the same frequencies as the nav aids located in northern Japan, all in an attempt to fool pilots into straying into Soviet airspace so they could respond.
Mistakes were made on both sides, but I will never be convinced that the Soviets actually believed that KAL 007 was without a doubt a spy plane and shot it down anyway. The fact that they immediately went into damage control mode, quickly located the crash site and secretly recovered bodies, debris and the black boxes, obstructed all international rescue/investigative attempts in international waters and conducted a campaign of disinformation of epic proportions is proof.
