Korean Air Lines Flight 007
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KE007/KAL007) was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage, Alaska. On September 1, 1983, the flight was shot down by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor aircraft. The Boeing 747 airliner was en route from Anchorage to Seoul, but owing to a navigational mistake made by the crew, the airliner drifted from its original planned route and flew through Soviet prohibited airspace. The Soviet Air Forces treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding U.S. spy plane, and destroyed it with air-to-air missiles, after firing warning shots. The Korean airliner eventually crashed into the sea near Moneron Island west of Sakhalin in the Sea of Japan, killing all 269 passengers and crew aboard, including Larry McDonald, a United States representative. The Soviet Union found the wreckage under the sea two weeks later on September 15 and found the flight recorders in October, but this information was kept secret by the Soviet authorities until 1992, after the country's collapse.
The aircraft involved when still in service with Condor (1976).
HL7442 at Honolulu International Airport in September 1981, 2 years before the crash
Congressman Larry McDonald
A Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor
Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd., operating as Korean Air, is the flag carrier of South Korea and its largest airline based on fleet size, international destinations, and international flights. It is owned by the Hanjin Group.
A Korean National Airlines Douglas DC-4 at Oakland in 1953
Wreckage of the fatal Korean Air Flight 801 in 1997
Korean Air Lines Boeing 747SP at EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg in 1985
Korean Air takes delivery of its first Airbus A380 at Toulouse–Blagnac Airport, France, May 25, 2011.