Korean Air Lines Flight 007, also KAL 007 or KAL 7, was a Korean Air Lines flight from New York City
to Seoul via Anchorage, Alaska. Due to navigational mistakes made by the pilots, the Boeing 747 airliner drifted from its original planned route and flew through Soviet prohibited airspace. Over Sakhalin Island, the flight was shot down by a Sukhoi Su-15 fighter of the Soviet Air Force. All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed, including NASA Administrator Thomas Paine and US Congressman Lawrence McDonald.
History[]
Initially, Ellen Wilson was scheduled to fly together with Thomas to Seoul, where they were supposed to negotiate an East Asian space alliance (EASA). However, while they were drinking in a bar in New York a few hours before the flight, Ellen received a phone call telling her that her father William just had a heart attack. Thomas told her to take the limo and go look after him. He would fly alone and she could still follow a few days later if possible.[1]
KAL 007 started from Kennedy International Airport in New York, and after a refuel in Anchorage, Alaska, the aircraft departed for Seoul. Soon after take-off, the airliner began to deviate to the north of its assigned route, and continued to do so for hours, unnoticed by the pilots. After 3 hours, they flew over the restricted airspace of the Kamchatka Peninsula and were heading towards Sakhalin Island. In Sakhalin, the Soviets had a secret military facility, where they were constructing and testing their Buran space shuttle. As the Korean plane approached the island, they had deviated almost 500 km from their planned flight path.
Inside the plane, Thomas Paine was talking to Margo Madison in Houston. He told her, that he can't sleep during flights and that these long flight would be the only time he could really focus. While they were chatting about Apollo-Soyuz and the upcoming negotiations for the EASA, a Soviet fighter approached the Boeing from behind and fired a missile.[1]
After Thomas Paine's death, Ellen Wilson took over his duties as acting administrator. Later, she was nominated by President Reagan as the new permanent administrator of NASA.[2]
The KAL 007 incident marked a new height in the Cold War between the two superpowers. As a result, President Reagan decided to arm Pathfinder, as well as to move forward the retaking of the lunar lithium mining site 357 Bravo.[1]
Gallery[]
after the KAL 007 incident
George Shultz on TV
on NBC Nightly News
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Oleg Troyanovsky
Behind the scenes[]
The real KAL 007 airplane
The Korean Air Lines Flight 007 incident also happened in reality. On September 1, 1983, the airliner was shot down at Sakhalin by a Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor. Like in the series, US representative Larry McDonald was among the 269 casualties. The incident was one of the tensest moments of the Cold War and resulted in an escalation of anti-Soviet sentiments.
In the OTL, the Soviets mistook the Boeing 747-200 as a US spy plane, gathering intelligence, in FAM, KAL 007 was shot down thinking the US was spying on the Sakhalin Buran launch site. IRL, the Boeing strayed into Soviet airspace due to a navigation error, it is not yet confirmed if this was the same reason for the FAM timeline
The incident appears to happen on the same date in the show as it did in reality, although the date is not explicitly told. Lots of real life archive footage is used in the political aftermath of the shot down, like reactions from several US politicians, the UN security council meeting, or news reports on TV and from the Los Angeles Times.
In reality, the Soviet Buran shuttle was not constructed at or launched from Sakhalin, it is also worth mentioning that Thomas Paine was not among the 269 passengers in the OTL, as Paine died in 1992 from cancer.
See also[]
External links[]
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 on Wikipedia
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 For All Mankind TV series, season 2, episode 7, "Don't Be Cruel"
- ↑ For All Mankind TV series, season 2, episode 8, "And Here's to You"