Inspired Blog #3

This inspired blog post comes from come from a story Sandy Brooks from the Join Task force recommended we look up during her presentation earlier this year. In the middle of her presentation she ask the small group of students who went to her presentation to look up the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 which is also known as KAL 007 or KE 007. I eventually looked it up on the internet and found it to be a rather interesting story so I decided to write one of my inspired blogs about the situation.

Spy Plane or Civilan Aircraft??

Basically this is a suspicious story about a Korean Air Lines airbus full of civilian that was shot down a Soviet Military Aircraft. The flight was en route to New York City coming from Anchorage. Needless to say all of the passengers onboard were killed. The incident took place in September of 1983 over the Sea of Japan. One of the reason it drew so much attention from the United States was because one of our Congressmen was onboard the Korean flight when it was shot down. Another reason that grabbed my attention was the fact that at first the Soviet denied shooting the plane down but later claimed they did shoot it down because it was on a “spy mission.” In my opinion it doesn’t make any sense for the Soviet to deny shooting the plane down and later retracting the statement and insisting that they shot it down because it was on a spy mission. I’m no fighter pilot or top military official, I do have several years of military experience, but I think any civilian can tell the difference between a spy plane and civilian air liner. Next to this paragraph I posted a picture of the Korean Air Liner that was shot down, and it doesn’t look like a spy plane to me. The Soviets also obstructed the search a rescue efforts of the wreckage, I feel like the only reason they would do this is because they had something to hide. Why else wouldn’t they let the United State help with search and rescue efforts?

From what a read about the incident, it says that the Soviet shot it down because it had crossed an international line into restricted Soviet territory during what the Soviet called a “planned missile test” time. The reason I put parentheses around the “planned missile test” is because of my intended sarcasm. From what I understand most of the official who investigated the incident didn’t believe that the Soviet had any missile testing going on at that time. I guess they believed that the United Stated provoked the Soviet by crossing the restricted airline; they said the American’s “allegedly” wanted to see what the Soviet’s Military capabilities were by crossing their territory.  The Soviets even took it as far as saying the United States told the airliner to cross the line to try and start a war with the Soviets.

Like I said, I found this story really interesting. It ended up being one of the tensest events during the cold war. It also eventually leads to the airline tracking policy by the United States. They put tracking devises in all their aircraft to prevent another situation like this. I would also recommend that you check this story out.