Who shot down the Korean plane 1983. South Korean "Boeing" was not shot down by us

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On September 1, 1983, a South Korean Boeing 747 was shot down in the sky over Sakhalin while flying over the territory of the USSR. There were 269 passengers on board. This incident is considered to be one of the most mysterious in the history of civil aviation.

It is said that the creators of the Lost series (“Stay alive”) were inspired precisely by the mysterious circumstances of the death of the Korean Boeing. And this is not surprising: intriguing events and facts related to this disaster would be enough for more than one series.

The Soviet military had no doubt that the plane was on a reconnaissance mission. He walked without identification signals, deviating 500 km from the route. As a result, the Soviet military command interrupted the KAL-007 flight right over the Sakhalin village of Pravda with the help of a Su-15 fighter. However, whether this is true, we still do not know.

"ARE YOU KIDDING?"

A good prelude to a series like Lost would be the next episode. Approximately two hours before flight KAL-007 skidded into the Soviet air space, U.S. civilian ground control controllers exchanged phrases like, "Hey guys, there's someone approaching the Russian air defense zone." - "Can't be, are you kidding?" “We must warn him.”

This was clearly documented by the controllers' record. The question is why the crew of the South Korean liner was never warned?

ANNOUNCED HAPPY END

Korean Airlines flight 007 on the New York-Anchorage-Seoul route was scheduled to arrive at the Korean airport around 6 am. But he was late. At 7:20 a.m. representatives of Korean Airlines came out to the concerned meeting with a reassuring message that some unforeseen circumstances had arisen with the flight, but the liner had fuel for another 3 hours, so there was nothing to worry about. Officials did not provide any further details. If the meeters lived in the US and watched ABC's seven o'clock news, they would know a little more: for example, that the Korean Boeing, which was on Flight 007, disappeared from the radar. True, hardly anyone would have explained to you why the American television people were so concerned about the late Korean airliner.

At the same time, some details of the incident were announced in the news: the flight was allegedly forcibly landed by the Soviet Air Force on Sakhalin. Of course, this could not help but irritate the Koreans, but nevertheless, the anxiety disappeared: many of those who met went home with a calm soul. But the soul did not remain calm for long ...
An hour later, the Soviet Foreign Ministry informed the Japanese embassy in Moscow (with South Korea the USSR did not have diplomatic relations) that flight 007 did not land on Sakhalin, and Soviet officials have no information about the whereabouts of the aircraft.

ON THE AIR AFTER DEATH

After a couple of days Soviet Union officially admitted that his air defense forces shot down a plane that violated Soviet airspace, not responding to warnings. It was even established exact time- 22.26 local time. However, there are documented recordings of the pilots of flight KAL-007 that appeared on the air 50 minutes after the destruction by the Soviet fighter. Moreover, they did not give any signals for help.

This gave birth to a version that the Soviet pilot shot down some other aircraft, probably an American RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, which looks very much like a Boeing 747. Interestingly, Gennady Osipovich, the pilot of the Su-15 that shot down the liner, was sure that his target was a non-civilian aircraft. In particular, Osipovich expresses doubt that such a large aircraft as the Boeing 747 could have been shot down with just two R-60 missiles, which he fired at him.

WHERE ARE THE PASSENGERS?

There were 269 people on board - passengers and crew members. However, not a single body was found by the search expedition: only minor fragments. It is curious that the missing bodies of the dead excited the imagination of some American journalists: a version appeared in the Western press that the Soviet military burned the bodies in a crematorium to cover their tracks.

But let's get back to the direct evidence. One of the Soviet divers who took part in the search recalled: “I did not miss a single descent. I have a very clear impression: the plane was filled with garbage, and there were no people there. Why? Well, if a plane crashes, even a small one. As a rule, suitcases, handbags, at least suitcase handles should remain ... And there were things that, I think, normal people should not carry on an airplane. Well, let's say, a roll of amalgam - like from a garbage dump ... All clothes, like from a landfill - pieces are torn out of it ... We have been working for almost a month! ... There were few wearable things - there were jackets, raincoats, shoes - very few. And what they found was some kind of rip!”

All this gave reason to say that the liner, discovered a few weeks after the disaster, is a falsification.

"THE DOCUMENTS" SHIPPED TO THE JAPANESE ISLANDS

A week after the disappearance of the liner, small fragments of the Boeing, pieces of skin, the remains of luggage were thrown onto the coast of the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. Experts put forward the version that the "material evidence" was brought to Japan from the area of Soviet Sakhalin, where the liner was shot down. True, there was one "but". The fact is that in September 1983 in the Sakhalin region there was not a single current that would drive waves from south to north. Detailed weather reports claimed that a strong wind was blowing in the opposite direction. In other words, the wreckage of the aircraft could only have entered Japan from the south, not from the north.

"CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY"

However, for unknown reasons, the offense was forgotten by the American side very quickly. George Shultz, the US Secretary of State, got down to business with great enthusiasm at the beginning: a group of the best investigators from the Transportation Safety Administration was sent to Alaska to investigate the tragedy. However, after only a few days, the investigators returned to Washington without starting an investigation.

TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE DISASTER

Interestingly, technological service South Korean aircraft on Andrews was held in the hangar of a company that supplied special electronic equipment. It remains only to add that it is the aircraft with the number HK-7442 that will make the ill-fated flight on September 1, 1983 with the dissonant and at the same time symbolic name -KAL-007 ...

Image caption A monument to the fallen citizens of Japan was erected at the site of the tragedy

30 years ago, a tragedy occurred in the sky over the Pacific Ocean, which some Russian sources to this day bashfully call an "incident": a Soviet air defense fighter shot down a South Korean civilian airliner that violated the air border of the USSR. All 269 people on board, including 23 children, were killed.

Two key mysteries remain unsolved. Who gave the fatal order? Why did the Boeing crew, which, according to the official version, was ordered to change course and land at the Soviet airfield, disobey?

On a wave of emotions in the USSR, there were suggestions that the Americans deliberately sent a plane into Soviet airspace in order to test the strength of the potential enemy's air defense, in the USA - that the "Russian communists" deliberately destroyed civilian passengers in order to intimidate the world with their inexorable cruelty.

Declassified documents and data that fell into the hands of the Soviet authorities flight recorders of the downed Boeing testify that a monstrous misunderstanding has happened, multiplied by the atmosphere of the Cold War.

Oppressive environment

After the events in Afghanistan and Poland, Ronald Reagan came to power in Washington, and Yuri Andropov in Moscow, Soviet-American relations fell to their lowest point since the Caribbean crisis.

In the spring of 1982, two American carrier groups rounded Kamchatka and entered the neutral waters of the Sea of Okhotsk, on the shores of which Soviet missile submarine bases were located.

In March-April 1983, three aircraft carriers with escort ships conducted three-week exercises in the Aleutian Islands.

On April 4, 1983, six American A-7 Korsar attack aircraft entered the airspace over Soviet territorial waters in the Malaya Kuril ridge and simulated an airstrike on Zeleny Island.

The political and military leadership of the USSR was shocked by the helplessness of the Soviet air defense revealed during the incident. As a result of the investigation, Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov ordered the urgent replacement of the MiG-21 and MiG-23 fighters in the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin with more advanced MiG-31: as stated in the order, to prevent possible provocations.

"They really got fed up with it," recalled former Assistant Secretary of State for Defense Industry and Technology William Schneider.

When Andropov took over in 1982, I felt a new courage and confidence in Arbatov and Primakov: the USSR finally had a leader who would make everything work and put Soviet power on an equal footing with the West Strobe Talbot
American politician

For its part, on November 24, 1982, the Soviet Union withdrew from negotiations on limiting medium-range missiles in Europe, and on December 8, from negotiations on strategic and conventional weapons on the European continent. Diplomatic demarches were accompanied by threatening rhetoric in the spirit of "the misanthropic plans of the imperialists."

Long ago placed at their western borders a large number of medium-range missiles aimed at Europe, the Soviet Union categorically, to the point of hysteria, objected to similar US plans, while rejecting the "zero option" proposed by the Americans.

In a November 24 statement, Andropov threatened the United States with measures that would nullify the effects of Pershings and Tomahawks and the hypothetical Star Wars program in Europe. Military analysts immediately figured out that it was about the constant duty of Soviet nuclear submarines near the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States.

On June 14-18, 1982, the USSR conducted the "Shield-82" exercises with a full-scale imitation of a nuclear missile strike, called in the West a seven-hour nuclear war.

At a meeting with the leadership of the KGB in May 1981, Andropov called the main task not to overlook the similar intentions of a potential adversary.

The largest Soviet intelligence operation since World War II, diverting forces from political and economic espionage, was carried out from 1981 to 1984, peaking in 1983. Not only military activity was constantly monitored, but also many indirect signs, for example, an increase in donor blood supplies.

For Soviet diplomats, what was happening was a shock. For at least twenty years no one seriously considered the possibility of nuclear war.

"I learned about this from the KGB resident. We regarded all these fears rather skeptically, but we still had to take them seriously, since Moscow could have secret information that we did not know about," the then Soviet ambassador recalled in Washington, Anatoly Dobrynin.

The fragility of the world at that time is evidenced by the state of emergency on the night of September 26 (Moscow time), 1983.

Due to the exposure of the sensors of the Soviet satellite by sunlight reflected from high-altitude clouds, a false signal was received at the missile defense command post in Serpukhov about the launch of American ICBMs. Only the professionalism and common sense of the senior shift, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, did not allow a nuclear alarm to be declared in the USSR.

In an environment where the parties, in the favorite expression of journalists, "looked at each other through the slots of the sights," anything could happen. And it happened.

On the night of tragedy

The passenger Boeing 747 (registration number HL7442) of the South Korean company Korean Air was performing regular flight KAL-007 on the New York - Seoul route with a refueling stop at Anchorage, Alaska.

On board were 23 crew members and 246 passengers: South Koreans, Americans (including Congressman Larry McDonald), Taiwanese, Japanese and Filipinos.

On September 1 at 03:00 local time (11:00 GMT), he took off from Anchorage. The route ran over the Pacific Ocean, skirting the territory of the USSR.

Flying in the area of the radio beacon in Bethel, the last control point on American soil, the plane deviated from the course in a northwesterly direction by 20 kilometers. The situation was regular and did not give grounds for alarm, but a minor error, gradually accumulating, had grown to more than 500 kilometers by the time the aircraft died.

According to an investigation conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and subsequently confirmed by information from the "black boxes", the crew incorrectly set up the autopilot, and subsequently did not perform manual checks of the current coordinates, relying on automation.

At 04:51 local time, the plane entered Soviet airspace and continued flying over the restricted area in Kamchatka, where the Soviet missile base was located.

On that day, another test of the Soviet ballistic missile SS-25 was expected, which was supposed to start from the Plesetsk cosmodrome and hit the target at the Kamchatka Kura training ground.

Information in such cases was limited to a two-line TASS message stating that the test was successful.

Of course, the Americans were not without interest whether this was really so. R-135 reconnaissance aircraft were sent to the shores of Kamchatka every time, which, with the help of on-board equipment, observed the flight and fall of the rocket.

Our actions were absolutely correct. Soviet pilots have a ban on shooting at civil aircraft, but in this case their actions were fully justified From the speech of the Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Ustinov at a meeting of the Politburo

P-135s were built on the basis of Boeings and outwardly almost did not differ from them, especially in the dark and in the clouds.

The reconnaissance aircraft reached the USSR border at 02:35 and began cruising in a given area. At a certain moment, he and the passenger "Boeing" became so close that they merged into one point on the screens of distant radars.

Then the "Boeing" continued to move towards Kamchatka, and the P-135 retired in a direction that more or less coincided with the international air corridor.

Soviet operators accepted passenger liner for an air scout.

Six MiG-23 fighters rose to intercept, which escorted a suspicious object over Kamchatka and returned to base when it left Soviet airspace at 06:05 and continued flying over Sea of Okhotsk.

By means of electronic control it was recorded that at 06:10 the crew reported on the radio ground services in Alaska and Japan that the flight is going well.

At 06:13 the Boeing crossed the Soviet border again, this time over Sakhalin. Two Su-15 interceptors from the Dolinsk-Sokol air base took off towards them. At 06:24 an order was received: "Destroy the target."

Captain Gennady Osipovich fired two missiles that hit the airliner. After 12 minutes, the wreckage fell into the sea from a height of nine kilometers in the area of Moneron Island southwest of Sakhalin.

The commander of the air division in which Osipovich served, Anatoly Kornukov, was neither encouraged nor punished. Subsequently, he became an Army General and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force and Air Defense. However, it is difficult to imagine that such a decision was made at the divisional level.

The stamp of the "cold war" fell on this entire tragic incident Georgy Kornienko
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR

Did they report to seriously ill Yuri Andropov? According to Alexander Korzhakov, apparently, yes. But it should be borne in mind that the future chief bodyguard of Boris Yeltsin at that time was an ordinary employee of the 9th KGB Directorate.

And if not, who took responsibility? Air Defense Command? Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Ogarkov? Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov?

Even members of the Politburo did not know this.

"We were confronted with a fact. Who made the decision? Did the general secretary know? It remained unclear," Vitaly Vorotnikov wrote in his diary.

"Not for a minute did I think that I could shoot down a passenger plane. Anything but that!" - subsequently claimed Gennady Osipovich.

Since air passengers tend to sleep at night, the Boeing flew with the windows closed.

The misconception could also be facilitated by the fact that when the interceptors approached, the South Korean airliner began to slow down, which looked like an attempt to break away from pursuit (at a speed of less than 400 km / h supersonic fighter falls into a tailspin). According to the ICAO commission, the crew at that time was starting to climb.

According to Osipovich, he could not visually distinguish a civilian Boeing from a R-135, because he was not taught this, and did not make radio contact with the crew, since this would have to change to a different frequency. He testifies that he gave signals by flashing side lights, and four minutes before the opening of fire to kill, he fired several warning bursts in the direction of the aircraft, having used up 243 shells.

How could the Korean crew not notice this?

A fat and well-fed brisk television reporter, an expert on astronauts, interviewed our heroes-pilots, and it became absolutely clear which of the two of them - "stopped". The wide face of a black-haired, strong man calmly looked into the camera, and the word that decided the fate of 269 people was repeated: "enemy From the diary of literary critic Igor Dedkov

Even if someone in the Pentagon or the CIA came up with the idea to probe the Soviet air defense in this way, civilian pilots, and even foreigners, for any money would not play with the lives of passengers and their own.

Immediately after receiving news of what had happened, the Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Tikhonov drew attention to this discrepancy.

“It is not clear to me what the pilot was counting on. He understood that he was going to certain death,” he said at a meeting of the Politburo on September 2.

Subsequently, a member of the Soviet commission for the investigation of the emergency, Air Marshal Pyotr Kirsanov, pointed out the strange, in his opinion, circumstances, which consisted in the fact that the Boeing took off from Anchorage with a 40-minute delay, and the first and second pilots were retired officers of the South Korean Air Force, although both are commonplace in civil aviation practice.

The Soviet side also considered suspicious the presence on board of six service passengers who did not pay for tickets - Korean Air employees returning to their homeland.

Osipovich admitted that the pilots might not have seen his sidelights and bursts, since he was flying behind the "Boeing" in the tail and fired not tracer (for lack thereof), but ordinary shells.

"There is no evidence that the Soviet Union tried to warn the aircraft by launching tracers," US Secretary of State George Shultz said at a Sept. 1 press conference.

Whether there was a warning fire at all or not, only the fighter pilot and his superiors knew for sure.

It is possible that they decided to "bang" the alleged reconnaissance aircraft without warning, so that in the future it would be disrespectful. Version, not documented, but quite plausible.

Trouble in the Kremlin

The leadership of the USSR learned about what had happened during a scheduled meeting of the Politburo, which turned out to be historic, since it last time hosted by Yuri Andropov. Routine issues were discussed: the convening of the next plenum of the Central Committee in November, the implementation of the plan for the production of color television sets, trade with Egypt and the current situation in Afghanistan.

The news came like thunder from a clear sky. At first, they did not want to believe the information. The Chief of the General Staff, Ogarkov, who was urgently summoned, firmly stated that the military had no doubts: the plane was reconnaissance.

Since it was late in the evening, nothing concrete was decided. TASS issued a famous statement: "The intruder aircraft did not respond to the signals and continued flying to the side Sea of Japan". The words "retreat towards the Sea of Japan" entered the treasury of Soviet black humor along with the phrases "at the request of the workers" and "I have not read the novel, but I am deeply indignant at it."

Immediately after the meeting, Andropov, as he was going to, flew off to rest in the Crimea, instructing his colleagues once again to "consult and weigh everything." There, his condition deteriorated sharply, and he never returned to active work. Idle tongues said that the Soviet leader was punished by Korean demons.

Anatoly Dobrynin, who was on vacation in Moscow, spoke with Andropov before flying off. According to him, the Secretary General, on the one hand, assured that all this was "Reagan's intrigues", on the other hand, he scolded "stupid generals who do not think at all about big politics." He did not have words of regret for the dead.

The next day, an extraordinary meeting of the Politburo met, where the issue was discussed more calmly and substantively.

The chairman, Konstantin Chernenko, in his opening remarks, suggested focusing on how to minimize the "anti-Soviet campaign."

When reading the recording of the Politburo meeting of September 2, it becomes quite obvious that the top political leadership was taken by surprise, there could be no question of any preliminary planning for this incident. But something else is also certain: the tragedy of the South Korean liner was predetermined by many years of brinkmanship Rudolf Pikhoya
historian

The participants discussed technical details in detail, scolded the Americans and justified their military. Mikhail Gorbachev kept silent for the most part, confining himself to a remark: "The plane was over our territory for a long time. If it strayed off course, the Americans could inform us."

The question of why the Soviet authorities did not try, in turn, to contact the competent representatives of the United States or South Korea, did not arise.

Concerning concrete tactics opinions were divided.

First Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Kornienko, who was in charge of Soviet-American relations, who was invited to the meeting, proposed to recognize the tragic accident and apologize to the families of the victims and the governments of their countries, while emphasizing that the incident was provoked by the American side with its reconnaissance flights near the Soviet borders.

But the point of view of Minister of Defense Ustinov prevailed, arguing that everything should be denied.

Ustinov, 74, was in better physical shape than most of his colleagues, and spoke not languidly and streamlined, but self-confidently and with force.

After the meeting, Kornienko called Andropov in the Crimea and tried to defend his position. The General Secretary contacted Ustinov, who scolded Kornienko and advised Andropov not to worry about anything.

The Soviet, American and Japanese navies began searching for the wreckage of the downed aircraft. There was no question of cooperation in those relations.

Two months later, Soviet divers raised the "black boxes" from the bottom, which only ten years later were transferred to ICAO by order of Boris Yeltsin.

Judging by the published data, the Boeing was flying on autopilot all the time, the crew members were calm and carried on ordinary conversations until the last minute. There is no evidence that they knew about the deviation from the route or saw the interceptor.

Off the coast of Sakhalin and Moneron, it was possible to collect 213 items of footwear thrown out by the waves, which were handed over to representatives of the United States and Japan and identified by relatives of the Boeing passengers.

No bodies were found, so conspiracy theorists in the West claimed that the plane landed somewhere on Soviet territory, and the passengers and crew were sent to Siberian camps. An international public committee for their release was even created.

November 7, 1988 court federal district Colombia refused to limit the material claims of the relatives of the dead Americans against Korean Air, acknowledging that the crew allowed unprofessionalism and negligence during the flight.

In 1986, the USSR, the USA and Japan created a unified air traffic tracking system over the northern part of Pacific Ocean and established a direct link between their dispatch services.

Only on September 7, the Soviet government acknowledged the fact of the destruction of the liner and expressed regret over the death of innocent people.

"Go back to Washington without delay and try to do everything possible to slowly muffle this conflict, which is completely unnecessary to us," Andropov admonished Dobrynin.

"Little by little" didn't work. A scheduled meeting between Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko and Secretary of State Shultz on September 8 in Madrid resulted in an unprecedented scandal with a public exchange of accusations. Reagan called the incident "a crime against humanity that must never be forgotten," "an act of barbarism and inhuman cruelty."

Was late. The world was outraged not only by the fact that innocent people were killed, but also by shameless lies. The damage to the country's reputation was enormous Leonid Mlechin
historian

Thousands of demonstrations were held in South Korea with the burning of Soviet flags.

According to Dobrynin, by the summer of 1983, Andropov realized that Soviet-American relations had reached a dangerous dead end, and he was thinking about how to improve them.

On July 21, the American ambassador gave him a personal message from Reagan. On August 1, Andropov responded by proposing to start with creating a confidential channel for the exchange of opinions.

A few days before the disaster, he asked Dobrynin in detail what kind of person the American president was: "On the one hand, an enemy of the Soviet Union, on the other, he looks like a reasonable person in correspondence."

The death of the "Boeing" put an end to timid attempts at dialogue. Relations remained at a freezing point until the meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavik.

Soon, Soviet designers reported on a great achievement: the development of an anti-missile with a nuclear warhead, guaranteed to destroy the "Pershing" when approaching Moscow. True, for this it would be necessary to arrange an atomic explosion over their own capital. Madness ideas were horrified only under Gorbachev, and then the military-industrial complex began to enthusiastically master the allocated funds.

website Turning 30 next year greatest tragedy in Russian-Korean modern history.

We can safely predict the aggravation of anti-Russian ultra-right sentiments in South Korea, therefore, we recall without technical details about the tragic events of September 1, 1983. This story gave rise to many mysteries, so far not a single body has been found, although everyone has thoroughly searched.

What they wrote and said then:

Soviet media version. On September 2, 1983, a strange report was published about an unidentified aircraft flying into Soviet airspace. The Su-15 fighter-interceptors raised on alarm drove him out and he retired towards the Sea of Japan.
Soviet media version. On September 4, the newspapers condemned the propaganda hype raised in the West, in connection with the allegedly downed by Soviet fighters, a Boeing 747-230B passenger plane belonging to the South Korean airline Korean Air and performing a regular flight on the New York-Seoul route. A map of the route is published, and it is conjectured that the plane was on a spy mission.
Soviet media version. On September 8, regret is expressed for the loss of life. The fact that there was a tragic mistake and the Soviet air defense took the passenger plane for a reconnaissance aircraft was immediately known to the leadership of the USSR, but no one wanted to substitute the military and the responsibility was placed on the United States. A program of disinformation of the world community began, which caused the largest international scandal.

What happened then:

On September 1 at 3:00 local time, the Boeing 747 took off from Anchorage and headed for Seoul. The flight route was supposed to go around the territory of the USSR to the east of Kamchatka. However, almost from the very beginning of the flight, the plane began to deviate from the intended course.
At the same time, an American reconnaissance aircraft PC-135 was in the air, which for some time approached the Boeing. Radar observation data presented later by the Soviet side showed that the Boeing at a certain point in time approached the PC-135 reconnaissance aircraft so much that the marks on the radar screens merged. After that, one aircraft headed deep into the territory of the USSR, and the other along a route close to the international air route. Soviet air defense radar stations flew the Boeing 747 like an American reconnaissance aircraft, aided by the similar size and design of the aircraft.

The plane passed over Kamchatka, flew over Sakhalin, and was not allowed to fly to Vladivostok.
At 6:26 local time, Lieutenant Colonel Osipovich received an order from the commander of the Far Eastern Military District, General Tretyak, and fired two missiles at the silhouette of an aircraft flying near the very edge of the clouds. One of the rockets flew past, the other exploded near the tail of the liner, damaging the control systems. After 12 minutes, the Boeing falls into the waters of the Tatar Strait, taking with it the lives of 269 passengers and crew members.

According to an investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the most probable cause 500 kilometers off-course was that the South Korean Boeing pilots misconfigured the autopilot and then did not perform proper checks to correct the current position. That is, the violation of the airspace of the USSR was unintentional.

Finding out the true background of the events that took place exactly thirty years ago in the night sky over Sakhalin and the Sea of Okhotsk is as difficult as proving and confirming the truth of the American moon landings. In both cases, behind the seeming simplicity and irrefutability of the version stubbornly promoted by the West, something completely different looms...

Meanwhile, it is necessary to understand, despite all the obvious inconsistencies. After all, the incident of 1983 became a convenient pretext for Washington and its allies to unleash another paranoid-hysterical campaign against the USSR, and contributed to the rallying of the anti-communist bloc. President Ronald Reagan found another reason to confirm his earlier thesis about the USSR as an "evil empire" - a term he borrowed from the film "Star Wars". Part of the Soviet elite was so frightened by the Western propaganda attack that two years later they voted with both hands for the coming to power of the favorite of our geopolitical rivals, Mikhail Gorbachev.

Once again, it makes no sense to talk in detail about the events of September 1983: the number of newspaper publications about the downed South Korean Boeing in our country is in the thousands, books have been written and films made about it. Let me just remind you that the most important accusation against us is the disproportionate use of force against a civilian airliner of the South Korean airline Korian Airlines, flying on the first day of autumn 1983, flight 007 New York - Anchorage - Seoul, as a result of which 269 passengers died and crew members.

But to this day, many facts work against the Western version of the "peaceful aircraft." This is a significant deviation of the Boeing from the flight route of more than five hundred kilometers, which began almost immediately after takeoff from Anchorage.

In response, we are told that the pilots simply made a mistake. But how many cases does history know when passenger aircraft with experienced pilots, who had flown this route more than once or twice before, gone so far to the side?

And for what reason the American management services air traffic did not warn the Korean pilots that they were flying on the wrong course?

There is still no clear answer to the question of why the “new” route of flight 007 ran over Kamchatka, the Kuriles and Sakhalin - in other words, areas that were and still are of strategic importance for the defense of our country. Again they object: what kind of information could a civilian aircraft collect, if everything is already visible from satellites. Well, firstly, not everything is noticeable from orbit through the veil of the earth's atmosphere, even now. And, secondly, one of the possible goals of a possible invasion of our airspace was to collect data on the organization of Soviet air defense systems, which were forced to work on the intruder.

Another question that has not received a clear answer from the West is the synchronization of the flight of a South Korean aircraft with the American Ferret-D reconnaissance satellite and an American spy plane.

In addition, the incident occurred against the backdrop of ongoing provocations in 1983 by Washington, which became insolent to the point that it even authorized imitation of bombing on one of our military airfields in the Kuriles.

And the main question to which there is no answer: how could the pilots of Corian Airlines not see the Soviet military aircraft that was next to them, which indicated its presence with both swaying wings and warning fire. Moreover, they also tried to leave, taking a higher echelon.

Suspicions are even more intensified when you find out that back in April 1978, another Corian Airlines flight 902, en route from Paris to Seoul through the same Anchorage, also “got lost” and, probably, quite by accident appeared in the sky above our other the most important area - the Kola Peninsula. He was forced to land, after going through the formalities, the passengers were released, the pilots were not punished, but expelled from the Soviet Union. This is a fairly well-known fact, but few of us know that in 1992 one of the reputable South Korean magazines published an article that contained the confession of the captain of that same Korian Airlines flight in connection with the CIA. It was on the eve of Boris Yeltsin's trip to Seoul, when he handed over the "black boxes" of flight 007 - perhaps no one suggested to him that, in connection with the above-mentioned publication, it was advisable to postpone such a ceremony for a more detailed study of the issue.

The presence of special services is also very strongly felt in the incident over Sakhalin. Boeing commander Jung Byung-in was once the personal pilot of the South Korean ruler Pak Chung-hee.

Working with the first persons of the state implies a mandatory procedure for passing an audit through the special services, or rather, long-term cooperation with them. However, both then and today, South Korean intelligence cannot be completely independent in its actions - it is in the same team with the Americans. But that's not all. The influential South Korean newspaper Joseon Ilbo then published a message about the landing of the allegedly downed Boeing on Sakhalin, citing CIA data. But it is not customary to spread about such cooperation of journalists with special services, and even foreign ones.

There is also a statement posted on the Internet by an American whose father, a career intelligence officer, did not board flight 007 just ten minutes before departure - on the advice of his colleagues. But the most surprising thing is the writings of Western "writers" who talk about the fact that in fact the Boeing was not shot down, but was only forced to land on the territory of the island administrative-territorial unit of the USSR. To the question about future fate passengers are given a simple answer: they are kept in the Gulag, because special "secret" camps are still preserved on the territory of Siberia. Cases of phone calls to relatives made by those who should have died thirty years ago are cited as "evidence". For example, an engineer who was working on electronic systems on board a Korean airliner unexpectedly called his mother, but only had time to report that everything was fine with him, after which he immediately hung up. There were also reports that Boeing passengers were often met by their acquaintances, but the “resurrected” pretended that they had misunderstood.

This means that the version of "informed sources" that in fact, instead of a passenger Boeing, an American reconnaissance aircraft similar to it was shot down has a right to exist. The liner was landed at an American military base in Japan, and all passengers were given new identity cards and a good monetary compensation while ordering them to remain silent. If so, then the Westerners are well aware that sooner or later the awl will come out of the bag, and then a huge scandal is inevitable. To avoid it, fables about the "active Gulag" were launched.

In favor of the fact that the Boeing incident was well orchestrated, several other similar cases dated the same 1983 speak.

The most resonant is the attempt on the life of South Korean dictator-president Chung Doo-hwan during his visit to Burma in early October, which was called in Japanese and South Korean sources as the "Incident at the Tomb of Aung San." Let me briefly remind you: Chung Doo Hwan, according to the protocol, was supposed to visit the mausoleum in honor of the founder of independent Burma in the capital of this state. The president, for some unknown reason, was late, having sent his ambassador to this country to the place of the ceremony in advance. However, there was an explosion near the mausoleum that claimed the lives of about thirty people, including the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Energy. Judging by a photo taken minutes before the incident, representatives of South Korea's top political establishment were lined up waiting for their boss.

After the incident, the Burmese military caught two allegedly North Korean agents, who, as part of a sabotage group, allegedly staged this terrorist act. It seems that everything converges, up to material evidence, there are also captured performers. But why until now no one bothered to clearly explain the reason for Chung Doo-hwan being late to the memorial cemetery, explain how North Korean agents could penetrate the territory of the tomb, which was guarded by about two hundred guards of the South Korean president, not counting the Burmese security forces, and set two mines there great explosive power. And why the North Korean merchant ship, from which the group of saboteurs allegedly landed, was from October 4 to October 11 in the port of Colombo, that is, far from the scene of the incident. And why would Chung Doo-hwan, upon his return to Seoul, not remove either the head of the intelligence service or the head of his own security from their posts. Yes, presumably North Korean agents were caught, but who can guarantee that these are not South Korean intelligence officers who were tasked with impersonating "brothers" from the North? However, the photos of these people so far no one has published. And there was no reason for the North Koreans to "run into" a scandal that resulted in a break in diplomatic relations with Burma, a country with which trade was very profitable for both Pyongyang and Rangoon. Now, decades later, these two countries are again drawn to each other like magnets, on the basis of anti-Western sentiment. However, a year before, the South Koreans claimed that they wanted to kill their leader - it is clear who - in Canada. It already looks like paranoia.

An even more mysterious incident occurred in August of the same 1983, when the South Korean warship Kangwon allegedly sank a high-speed North Korean reconnaissance ship in the Sea of Japan. More precisely, this was done by a helicopter taking off from the ship with an ACC-12 missile, which, according to the South Koreans, is designed to fire at ground targets. Strangely, there is no information about the successful use of ACC-12 in the Sea of Japan anywhere else, except in South Korean sources. There are also different versions of what happened. According to one of them, the South Koreans stepped onto the deck of the wrecked ship, according to another, it simply sank, and again not a single photograph. But as evidence, a helicopter was put on public display, the fuselage of which was decorated with the sign of the destroyed enemy warship. "Strong" evidence, of course.

I believe that in the case of the Boeing, the Americans pursued not only the goal of finding out the details of the functioning of the Soviet air defense system, but also wanted to prevent Seoul from rapprochement with Moscow.

The South Korean dictator, General Pak Chung-hee (president of the country in 1963-1979), apparently, was very burdened by his total dependence on Washington. Therefore, as far as possible, he was looking for "exits" to Moscow. One of the first signs is gratitude to the Soviet leadership for the quick resolution of the issue with the passengers and crew of flight 902, which, I note, was done in the absence of diplomatic relations. This line was continued under the next military ruler Chung Doo Hwan, when South Korean walkers, who also had American or Japanese citizenship, after receiving a visa, visited our foreign affairs department to persuade us to improve relations with Seoul. After the incident with the Boeing, these visits to the Foreign Ministry ended, a wave of anti-Soviet hysteria swept over South Korea ...

Special for the Centenary

"Are you kidding?"

A good prelude to a series like Lost would be the next episode. About two hours before Flight KAL-007 skidded into Soviet airspace, U.S. civilian ground controllers exchanged phrases like, "Hey guys, there's someone approaching the Russian air defense zone." “It can’t be, are you kidding?” - "We must warn him."

This was clearly documented by the controllers' record. The question is why the crew of the South Korean liner was never warned?

Announced happy ending

Korean Airlines Flight 007 on the New York-Anchorage-Seoul route was scheduled to arrive at the Korean airport around 6:00 am. But he was late. At 7:20 a.m. representatives of Korean Airlines came out to the concerned meeting with a reassuring message that some unforeseen circumstances had arisen with the flight, but the liner had fuel for another 3 hours, so there was nothing to worry about. Officials did not provide any further details. If the meeters lived in the US and watched ABC's seven o'clock news, they would know a little more: for example, that the Korean Boeing, which was on Flight 007, disappeared from the radar. True, hardly anyone would have explained to you why the American television people were so concerned about the late Korean airliner.

Exactly at 10.00, when the Boeing should already be running out of fuel, all Korean news voiced the words of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea: everything is in order with the plane, it made an emergency landing on Sakhalin, the crew and passengers are in complete safety. And an hour later, Vice President of Korean Airlines Cho, who was just setting off to return passengers of Flight 007 home, addressed the meeting in person: “In less than 24 hours, these problems will be solved, and I promise to deliver them to you.” At the same time, some details of the incident were announced in the news: the flight was allegedly forcibly landed by the Soviet Air Force on Sakhalin. Of course, this could not help but irritate the Koreans, but nevertheless, the anxiety disappeared: many of those who met went home with a calm soul. But the soul did not remain calm for long ...
An hour later, the Soviet Foreign Ministry informed the Japanese embassy in Moscow (the USSR had no diplomatic relations with South Korea) that flight 007 had not landed on Sakhalin, and Soviet officials had no information about the whereabouts of the aircraft.

Airing after death

A couple of days later, the Soviet Union officially admitted that its air defense forces shot down a plane that violated Soviet airspace, not responding to warnings. Even the exact time was set - 22.26 local time. However, there are documented recordings of the pilots of flight KAL-007 that appeared on the air 50 minutes after the destruction by the Soviet fighter. Moreover, they did not give any signals for help. This gave birth to a version that the Soviet pilot shot down some other aircraft, probably an American RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, which looks very much like a Boeing 747. Interestingly, Gennady Osipovich, the pilot of the Su-15 that shot down the liner, was sure that his target was a non-civilian aircraft. In particular, Osipovich expresses doubt that such a large aircraft as the Boeing 747 could have been shot down with just two R-60 missiles, which he fired at him.

Where are the passengers?

But let's get back to the direct evidence. One of the Soviet divers who took part in the search recalled: “I did not miss a single descent. I have a very clear impression: the plane was filled with garbage, and there were no people there. Why? Well, if a plane crashes, even a small one. As a rule, there should be suitcases, handbags, at least suitcase handles ... And there were things that, I think, normal people should not carry on an airplane. Well, let's say, a roll of amalgam - like from a garbage heap ... All clothes, like from a landfill - pieces are torn out of it ... We have been working for almost a month! ... There were also few wearable things - there were very few jackets, raincoats, shoes. And what they found was some kind of rip!”

All this gave reason to say that the liner, discovered a few weeks after the disaster, is a falsification.

"Evidence" that sailed to the Japanese islands

"Crimes against humanity"

US President Ronald Reagan, upon learning of the sinking of the South Korean liner, called the incident "a crime against humanity that must never be forgotten." Moreover, Washington had its own account for the actions of the Soviet air defense, since US Congressman Larry MacDonald, a temperamental anti-communist and very promising politician, died in the crash. However, for unknown reasons, the offense was forgotten by the American side very quickly. George Shultz, the US Secretary of State, got down to business with great enthusiasm at the beginning: a group of the best investigators from the Transportation Safety Administration was sent to Alaska to investigate the tragedy. However, after only a few days, the investigators returned to Washington without starting an investigation.

Two weeks before the disaster

The loss of interest in the fate of the KAL-007 flight among the Americans coincided with the news that a South Korean passenger aircraft with tail number NL-7442 was at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington for three days - from August 11 to 14, 1983. It is at this airbase, by the way, that the American presidential liner is still based - “Air Force One of the United States”. Interestingly, the technological maintenance of the South Korean aircraft on Andrews was carried out in the hangar of a company that supplied special electronic equipment. It remains only to add that it is the aircraft with the number HK-7442 that will make the ill-fated flight on September 1, 1983 with the dissonant and at the same time symbolic name -KAL-007 ...