Korean Air Lines Flight 902 took off from Paris Orly, France, at 13:39 to head to South Korea’s Gimpo International on April 20th, 1978. However, as the carrier’s Boeing 707 was on its way to its stopover site of Anchorage, Alaska, it was shot down by Soviet forces.
Polar route
The flight had veered off course on the way to Alaska and violated Soviet airspace due to errors with the magnetic compass-based navigation systems influenced by the north magnetic pole.
As a result, the plane was intercepted for 15 minutes and shot at by a Soviet fighter jet. The Boeing 707-300 then plunged 30,000 before the crew spent 1.5 hours burning fuel and looking for a landing spot. The plane then landed on a frozen like in Loukhi, Russian SFSR.
Two fatalities
Bang Tai-Hwan, a South Korean businessman, and Yoshitaka Sugan, a Japanese restaurateur, died from the impact of the shooting. Bang was killed instantly, while Sugan died by the time rescue missions arrived. All the other 107 people on board survived. Yet, at least ten passengers were injured by shells and shrapnel.
“Everything was normal for the first seven hours or so, until about 8:30 P.M. Paris time. Then a number of the passengers seated on the right side of the plane noticed that a small jet was flying alongside their big red, white, blue and silver airliner. All of them knew it was a fighter because of the projectiles suspended from its wings, but few were certain of its nationality. More than one, calculating that Flight 902 should be nearing Alaska, took it to be American,” The New York Times reported.
“Moments later, Mrs. Shiozaki, in seat 19A on the left side of the plane, saw flashes through her window. Several women cried out in fright, but were quickly calmed. Some passengers ducked for cover behind the seats in front of them. At least one of the shells, it later became known, ripped into the fuselage below the passenger deck. It tore a hole in a suitcase stored in the hold. It, or another fired in the same burst, apparently knocked out the electrical supply to the navigational system, which ceased functioning.”
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Investigations launched
The Soviet Union didn’t provide any data from the aircraft’s black box amid investigations. The 707 was dismantled, and the equipment was carried by helicopter onto a boat in Kandalaksha Gulf. Notably, the deputy chief commanding officer of Soviet air defense, Yevgeny Savitsky, inspected the flight deck.
Overall, the crew of the flight blamed navigational error for the aircraft’s course. Captain Kim Chang-kyu mentioned that he felt that the plane’s navigation equipment was in error but had followed it nonetheless.
Regardless, this incident wouldn’t be the last Korean Air flight to be shot down over Soviet airspace. Navigation error led to Flight 007 being shot down on September 1st, 1983, leading to the passing of all 269 people on board.
What are your thoughts about what happened on Korean Air Lines Flight 902 on April 20th, 1978? What do you make of the overall incident? Let us know what you think of the situation following the attack in the comment section.
