Korean Air Lines Flight 007 crash

Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was a Boeing 747 flying from New York to Seoul, with a stop at Anchorage, that strayed far off its planned route and entered Soviet airspace over Kamchatka and then Sakhalin. A Soviet Su-15 interceptor fired missiles at the aircraft near Sakhalin island and it crashed into the Sea of Japan, killing all 269 people aboard. The Soviet Union first denied involvement and later claimed that the aircraft had been on a spy mission, while the United States condemned it as a deliberate attack on a civilian airliner. Investigations by the international aviation body ICAO concluded that crew navigational error was likely the cause. The disaster heightened Cold War tension and led President Reagan to make the GPS satellite system available for civilian use.

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