Remembering Korean Air Lines Flight 902

KOREAN AIR BOEING 787-9 HL-8393 (MSN 35168)

Korean Air Lines Flight 902, scheduled flight from Paris (CDG/LKPG) to Seoul (ICN/RKSI) via Anchorage (ANC/PANC), was shot down by Soviet air defense on the 20th of April 1978, near Murmansk, after entering Soviet airspace. The Boeing 707 had corrected its course at the Canadian Station "Alert," but veered towards the Barents Sea and Soviet territory. Mistaken for a Boeing 747 by Soviet radars, Sukhoi Su-15TM jets were dispatched. 

Despite the airliner's captain slowing down and activating landing lights, the Su-15s received orders to attack. The U.S. reported that the Su-15 pilot attempted to avert the strike, identifying the plane as a civilian Boeing 707, not a reconnaissance RC-135. Following commands, two P-60 rockets were fired; one missed, the other hit, critically damaging the wing and causing a decompression that killed two passengers. The pilot's emergency descent into clouds shook off pursuit. The aircraft, flying low, sought landing spots across the Kola Peninsula and finally touched down on Korpijärvi lake's ice at dusk, with all survivors rescued by Russian helicopters.

Soviet helicopters rescued the survivors and transported them to the city of Kem in Karelia. The passengers were quartered in the garrison's Officers' Lodge.

On the 22nd of April, the survivors, except the pilot and first officer, were transported via Aeroflot from Kem to Murmansk, then by Pan American World Airways to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in Finland, where a Korean Air Lines aircraft departed on the 23rd of April for Seoul with the group of Flight 902 survivors and the bodies of those killed.

On the 29th of April, the pilot and navigator of Flight 902 were released. TASS, the official news agency of the Soviet Union, said that they had confessed to violating Soviet airspace and disregarding orders from the intercepting aircraft to land. According to TASS, the pair had appealed for clemency to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which pardoned and expelled them.

Aircraft Information:

Airline: Korean Air

Code: KE/KAL

Aircraft: Boeing 707-321B

Registration: HL-7429

Serial Number: 19363

Engines: Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B

First Flew: 1967

Age: 11 Years