NEW PIECES TO KOREAN AIR LINES PUZZLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480033-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 1, 2012
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: June 7, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480033-6
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE t' NITOR
7 June 1985
BOOK REVIEW
New pieces to Korean Air Liip~71
es z. e
By Warren Richey tween Soviets and
Washington military superiors on
The crew of the Korean Air Lines commercial the ground monitored
jet shot down by Soviet fighters in September by US intelligence
1983 may have provided false information to and released by the
United States and Japanese civilian air traffic con- U tale Department.
trollera during most of its armmthorized flight 1 e is no upon
through strategic Soviet territory. to date that the pilot
According to two books and recent new infor- made any distress sig-
mation about the tragic Anchorage-to-Seoul flight, nal or ever aekuowl-
the crew may have deliberately issued a series of . edged he was being
false position reports in an effort to disguise the pursued by a Soviet
fact that the plane was consistently off its sched- fighter; even though
uled course. 5'/2 minutes elapsed
The airliner KAL 7, was eventually shot down after the tracer can-
by
the Soviets over Sakhalin Island several hun- non and before the
dred miles off course and 53/2 hours into the flight, plane was shot.
after having already overflown a number of key ' T question is ~---
Soviet military installations. There were 269 peo- why? Most explana-
pie aboard. The plane has never been recovered, lions attribute the
tragedy to equipment
failure, human error,
COMMENTARY or an attempt to carry
? out.. an indigence
and there are no knawasurrivorra.. operation,
Ale ander Dallin, a Stanford University pro- Oliver Clubb, a
fessor and Soviet specialist, writes in his book, Syracuse University
Black Box, KAL 007 and the Superpowers (Uni- professor, suggests in
versity of i ornia Press, Berkeley, $14.95), that his book, KAL 007, The Hidden Sto
the plane reported to Anchorage it was flying at its (Permanent Press, Sag Ha or, .,
authorized altitude of 33,000.feet. But according to $16.95), that the Korean airliner was on a
the Soviets, when the plane entered Soviet air- mission for the 'US National Security
space near Kamchatka it was flying at 26,250 feet, Agency. He says the intruding plane was
without having received authorization to change used to cause the Soviets to think they
altitude. were under an air attack and thus turn on
"If the Soviet reports of KAL 007's altitude their air-defense radar systems. This
were accurate, this might constitute a solid morsel :would enable the US and Japan of evidence showing that the copilot - who could through nearby listening posts and sur-
obviously read off the aircraft's correct altitude - veillasce aircraft - to rnunita['and assess
waa wdlfatty pm' ` iff, p ? -the capabilities of the full range of Soviet
tion reports." Dallin writes. air radar defenses.
Japanese military radar reports released in To- He writes, "We can't expect the US
kyo in March indicate the KAL pilot may have National Security Agency to present us
tried to mislead Japanese air traffic controllers with a smoking gun; quite obviously those
when at 3:15 a.m. - 11 minutes before he responsible for operations of this sort do
was shot down - the pilot requested per- everything possible to cover their tracks."
mission to climb to 35,000 feet from Clubb feels he has a "strong prirua
32,000 feet. But after receiving authoriza- facie case suggesting that US governmen-
tion, Flight 7 actually reduced its altitude tal officials have. been guilty of serious
and then rose back up to 32,000 feet.- The wrongdoing." He suggests that US offi-
pilot reported his altitude as 35,00( feet. cials, led by President Reagan and Seere-
Japanese radar showed the piaw at tary of State George Schultz, were "gam-
'32.000 feet
i . bling with innocent lives" in an effort to
Within moments of the ilot's rt? perfect a strategy for a "decapitating" nu-
ing "new" altitude to the Japanese, a clear attack against the Soviet Union. He
Soviet ?et fi a burst of tracer cannon
sots across the e lane s flight pa ac- ticalling for a congressional irrves-
; r g to tranSrnnts tigation.
of conversations be D ' whose book is a more careful
and' easoned analysis, is less-w-Mi-to
to
G>1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/02 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605480033-6