KAL 902 IS DOWN
DURING THE NIGHT OF APRIL 20-21, 1978, SOUTH KOREAN AIRLINER KAL 902 DISAPPEARED ON A POLAR FLIGHT FROM PARIS TO SEOUL WITH A SCHEDULED REFUELING STOP IN ANCHORAGE, ALASKA. The aircraft had strayed off course and penetrated the Soviet Union’s airspace, and then been struck by a missile from a Soviet fighter and forced to make an emergency landing on a frozen lake.
At the time I was the deputy principal officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). I was tapped to travel to Murmansk and effect the turnover of the downed airliner’s passengers and crew, since at the time the United States represented South Korean interests in the Soviet Union. My involvement in the incident began with an embassy request to find out if Leningrad authorities had any information on the missing KAL 902 flight. The reply was curt: “Ask Moscow.” The two-word reply meant they did know something but it was too sensitive to be handled locally.
KAL 902 left Orly Airport in Paris a few minutes late at 1:39 p.m. on April 20, carrying 97 passengers—mostly Korean and Japanese with a smattering of Europeans—and 16 crew. The flight was Captain Kim Chang Kyu’s first on this polar route, though his navigator, Lee Kun Shik, had flown the route more than 120 times. The only unusual factor was that the aircraft on that day was an older Boeing 707 instead of the newer McDonnell Douglas DC-10 normally used for the flight.
After takeoff, the 707 climbed to its routine cruising altitude of 35,000 feet and settled into a cruise speed of 540 mph. Its course took it
