KAL 007 conspiracy theory?

[Allen773]

I'm surprised I haven't seen more posts here about this conspiracy theory here. This one has a lot of opportunities where woo can arise, including the surprisingly small amount of remains and wreckage of the 747 that was found when it was shot down by the Soviets in 1983. Adding to the coincidences is that Representative Larry McDonald, one of the most extreme anticommunists in Congress and the president of the John Birch Society at the time of his death, was among those killed on the Korean jetliner.

Some conspiracy theorists speculate that the Soviets knew that the plane carried McDonald, and reject the Soviets' explanation-that in the anxiety and paranoia concerning the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin Island and the sensitive sites there, trigger-happy Soviet pilots mistook a jet off-course and not responding to be an American spy plane (possibly an RC-135, one of which the Department of Defense later admitted was flying nearby).

Another belief is that the plane actually landed in Russia, and the passengers and crew are being held hostage to this day-thus explaining why an unusually small amount of the aircraft and passenger remains were recovered. There are a number of "Justice for KAL 007" websites that espouse this conspiracy theory.

Anyway, just thought I'd get the ball rolling on discussion of this incident and the conspiracy theories surrounding it. Has anyone here done extensive research into the KAL 007 conspiracy theories to see if they have any merit?

[jberryhill]

At the time, there was some of this stuff on usenet.

One thing that doesn't seem as popular as it used to is, "The space shuttle was up with its cargo bay open at the same time".

[ElMondoHummus]

There's an article in the Sept. 07 edition of Airways magazine (www.airwaysmag.com (http://www.airwaysmag.com)) titled "Flight KAL007: The Anatomy of a Cover-up". The authors are Robert W Allardyce and James Gollin.

I never got a change to read the article, but I understand that they're pushing a differnent "theory", still conspiratorial, that the jet was on some sort of spy mission. I think I need to go find the book they wrote together on the subject to see what the details were on that charge.

[eromitlab]

Saw a prisonplanet thing posted about McDonald a few months ago on a social news site. The poster insinuated that McDonald was a shoo-in to become President in 1984 and he was targeted for assassination because he was going to expose the new World order and make things difficult for their decades of planning to take over the world. Supposedly, Jerry Falwell was quoted in the Washington Post right after the loss of KAL 007 that the Soviets were targeting McDonald when they shot the plane down.

[ElMondoHummus]

Darn. Allardyce's and Gollin's book isn't part of my local library's collection... but I found something on KAL 007 that is:

http://www.amazon.com/Kal-Flight-007-Hidden-Story/dp/0932966594

I was intending to go there later for something completely unrelated anyway, so I might as well see if I can dig that book up too and see what conspiracy it spins.

[Reheat]

While I haven't read any of the books on the subject, I do know two items which would tend to discount any conspiracy theories.

KAL crews were known to try and shorten the leg from Anchorage to Seoul by flying along the same path they were flying when they were shot down. You'll just have to take my word for this inside information.

There is no radar coverage in that area and position reports are the only way of tracking the aircraft, so no one outside of the KAL crews and the Russian radar sites would have been the wiser to this fuel saving technique.

Let's assume for the sake of argument that they were not doing this on that day and merely made a mistake entering route data into the INS. At that time and up until the Guam accident KAL had a colossal problem with crew coordination. While nearly all airlines in the world had adopted CRM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_Resource_Management) procedures KAL was still operating with the concept of "the Captain is God" and not to be questioned. This philosophy was natural as it was embedded into Korean Confucian oriented culture and this concept was a natural inclination. This philosophy did not change until AFTER the Guam accident, after which, foreign management was hired to change the Corporate mentality (Crew Procedures) of KAL.

These two facts alone are very compelling circumstantial evidence which would lead one to NOT adopt a conspiracy theory surrounding the shoot down.

[beachnut]

, trigger-happy Soviet pilots mistook a jet off-course and not responding to be an American spy plane (possibly an RC-135, one of which the Department of Defense later admitted was flying nearby).

Another belief is that the plane actually landed in Russia, and the passengers and crew are being held hostage to this day-thus explaining why an unusually small amount of the aircraft and passenger remains were recovered. There are a number of "Justice for KAL 007" websites that espouse this conspiracy theory.

Anyway, just thought I'd get the ball rolling on discussion of this incident and the conspiracy theories surrounding it. Has anyone here done extensive research into the KAL 007 conspiracy theories to see if they have any merit?
The RC-135 was not flying near the 747, the 747 was flying near the RC!!!!! (the 747 was not on course) Do you suspect the RC flights were secret; no wonder no one comes out and says it was there; but gee, congress oversees the military and they will find out or be informed.

No idiot flies his jet near Russia, it was common knowledge, NO it was written on the flying chart, they will shoot you down!!!! The Soviets shot down anything they suspected was not theirs. There are other flights shot down.

So you have an idiot crew who is asleep, and either forgot the autopilot, and left it on heading instead of NAV, or left out way-points on the navigation system. Take a look at the flight path, leaving out one way-point could doom your flight.

No CT, just a mistake. Any good interceptor pilot could have closed to feet, and seen the Boeing was a 747! But then look at all the idiots who believe in CTs, we can expect there are a few idiots in the jets to shoot down a passenger plane, and a few crewmembers dumb and not checking their position to make sure they do not go into Soviet airspace.

No CT, just more idiots making it up stupid ideas, and suckers believing them.

Add Reheat's details on crews and you have KAL 007, dumb crew, and Soviet airspace, shoot them down!!!! Enough stupid for both sides. It's a mistake...

[Allen773]

Thanks beachnut and Reheat for clearing that up. Considering the circumstances of the shoot-down, there was a lot of misinformation/disinformation produced about this incident.