Seeking Resolution
Such reports of KAL Flight 007 passengers still being held in Russia are, of course, disturbing. But given the amount of intelligence that is available from the Russian government and our own, we do not presently have the means to confirm them. Neither, however, do we have any reason to dismiss them, and as long as the possibility remains that any passengers have survived, no means should be spared to account for their whereabouts.
The late Robert W. Lee researched KAL 007 extensively for TNA.
What do we know about the final minutes of KAL 007’s flight and how do we know it?
Records exist covering the flight of KAL 007 for a total of twelve minutes after it was attacked. At the time of the attack, the plane was cruising at an altitude of about 35,000 feet. Immediately upon impact, the nose pitched up and the plane rose to an altitude of 38,250 feet. Capt. Chun was able to turn off the autopilot and regain control of the aircraft bringing it back down to the cruising altitude of about 35,000 feet. This took 1 minute and 13 seconds (see Question 5 in this FAQ). Three minutes after being hit, the plane was at 30,000 feet (Republican Staff Study/”CIA Report”, pg. 45, based on Japanese Self Defense Force radar, Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan). The Captain then began a rapid emergency descent to 16,400 feet (reported as 5000 meters in the ICAO 1993 report) where passengers and crew could breathe without assistance. This descent lasted for two minutes. There is some uncertainty about the progress of KAL 007’s descent for the next four minutes. One source indicates that the plane descended slowly to 5,000 ft., then began circling and descending more slowly to 1,000 ft over the final three minutes before disappearing. Other sources indicate that Capt. Chun leveled the aircraft’s flight at 16,400 ft. and flew for at least four minutes of level flight before beginning a spiral descent that lasted until the plane went off the Soviet radar screens. During the four-minute period, the plane was heading from Sakhalin to Moneron Island.
Though not all sources cover the full twelve minutes, they all agree in presenting the composite picture that KAL 007 flew for twelve minutes from the moment of attack until it disappeared from the radar screens and that the speed of descent decreased (rather than increasing) which, along with the flight pattern, demonstrates that the aircraft was under control for the entire period. It finally circled Moneron, the only landmass, a tiny island, in the entire Tatar Strait; the only place a water ditching could be effected with the greatest possibility of survival once Sakhalin had been left behind.
We believe that KAL 007 did, indeed, level off at 5000 meters (16,400 ft.) and did maintain level flight until it had reached Moneron Island where it descended in a wide spiral.
The various pertinent sources are quoted below (all times given are Greenwich Mean Time-Zulu. Missile detonation occurred at 18:26:02.):
“After this fast, 5 minute spiral descent, but still consistent with standard flight procedure in the circumstances, KAL-007 then remained airborne for at least about 7 more minutes, en route to a location in Soviet territorial waters between Moneron Island and Sakhalin Island. KAL-007 was thus airborne for a total post-attack flight time of at least 12 minutes. Moreover, KAL-007’s altitude after a total of 9 minutes of flight was about 5,000 feet.
“The original U.S. special intelligence raw data, as publicly reported in the U.S. statement to the United Nations Security Council on September 1, 1983 by U.S. Ambassador Charles Lichenstein, stated: ‘At 1830 hours [after 4 minutes], the Korean aircraft was reported by radar at an altitude of 5,000 meters…
“Moreover, also on September 1, Secretary of State George Shultz also stated more fully: ‘At 1826 hours the Soviet pilot reported that he fired a missile and the target was destroyed. At 1830 hours [or 4 minutes later] the Korean aircraft was reported by radar 5,000 meters [16,400 feet]. At 1838 hours [12 minutes after being hit] the Korean plane disappeared from the radar screen.'”
Republican Staff Study/”CIA Report”, pg. 43 (quoted exact, including bracketed comments and underlining) (Note: the statement of 18:30 hours was later corrected to 18:31 hours.)
Concerning KAL 007’s ability to level out at 5000 meters and maintain a level flight of 4 to 5 minutes, from transcripts included with the 1993 ICAO Report Information Paper No. 1, pg. 134-135:
Gen. Kornukov (18:32): Tell the 23 [MiG]… afterburner. Open fire, destroy the target, then land at home base.
Lt. Col. Gerasimenko (acting commander, 41st Fighter Regiment, viewing radar): Roger
Kornukov: Altitude… What is the altitude of our fighter and the altitude of the target?
Quickly. The altitude of the target and the altitude of the fighter!
…
Why don’t you say anything? Gerasimenko!
…
Gerasimenko (18:33): Gerasimenko. Altitude of target is 5,000.
Kornukov: 5,000 already?
Gerasimenko (18:34): Affirmative, turning left, right, apparently it is descending.
“The last plotted radar position of the target was 18:35 hours at 5,000 meters.” (ICAO 1993, pg. 53, para. 2.15.8)
Concerning the location of KAL 007’s descent, precisely over the island of Moneron, from transcripts included with the 1993 ICAO Report:
Gen. Kornukov (18:36): …you know the range, where the target is. It is over Moneron… (ICAO, 1993, Information Paper No. 1, pg. 136.)
Lt. Col. Novoseletsky (commander, Smirykh Air Force Base) (18:39): So, the task. They say it has violated the State border again now?
Flight Controller Titovnin: Well, it is the area of Moneron, of course, over our territory.
Lt. Col. Novosletsky: Get it! Get it! Go ahead, bring in the MiG 23 (ICAO, 1993, Information Paper No. 1, pg. 90.)
Gen. Strogov (18:55): What ships do we have near Moneron Island, if [they are] civilians, sent (sic.) [them] there immediately (ICAO, 1993, Information Paper No. 1, pg. 96.)
“The geographic coordinates, showing where KAL-007 was hit, where it then went, and where it disappeared from Soviet radars, are known from special intelligence with a fair degree of precision, and these points have been plotted on U.S. Intelligence maps. For example, at 9 minutes after being hit, and at an altitude of 5,000 feet, KAL-007’s last tracked location, it was located approximately at co-ordinates 4617N-14115E. The special intelligence showing Soviet radar tracks indicate a flight path from Sakhalin Island toward Moneron Island, approaching from the North headed toward the south, and a ditching or crash site probably inside Soviet territorial waters, reportedly 2.6 kilometers North of Moneron Island, according to the June, 1991 NSA re-analysis.” [This location would allow for the final 3 minutes to be spent circling around Moneron.] Republican Staff Study/”CIA Report”, pg. 46-47 (Note: “special intelligence” refers to electronic intercepts.)
Did KAL 007 land on Sakhalin or on the water off Moneron?
Among those who are convinced that KAL 007 landed safely and that the passengers were rescued and luggage removed, there are two theories as to where the plane landed. Both theories and locations have a measure of support. We believe that the plane ditched on the water off the tiny island of Moneron but will present the pros and cons of each position. The final result, in either case, is the same as far as we are concerned-the passengers and crew were taken captive and were not killed in the destruction of the plane.
Sakhalin
It has been pointed out that the earliest reports of politically controversial events are often the most accurate. These are the reports that become public before those who have a vested interest in a specific viewpoint have the chance to begin efforts to control or “spin” the reportage. The very first reports about the downing of KAL 007 all stated that the plane landed on the large Soviet island of Sakhalin, home to several military and commercial airfields. These reports are amply documented in three articles written by Robert W. Lee for The New American magazine. He has a copy of a tape recording of FAA spokesman, Duty Officer Orville Brockman, notifying Congressman Larry McDonald’s press aide Tommy Toles that the plane was tracked to a landing on Sakhalin by Japanese Self-Defense Force radar. Those who have listened to this tape also comment on the tone as being very matter-of-fact which lends credence to the idea that the spokesman believed his report to be true and was simply passing on factual information rather than participating in any false reporting. Other accounts include an article in the New York Times of September 1, 1983-the first article on the shootdown by that paper-stating that early reports said the plane was forced down and landed on Sakhalin and that all aboard were believed to be safe, and the very first UPI wire story, dateline Seoul, Sept. 1, 1983 giving much the same information. These reports came, according to the article, from Korean Foreign Ministry officials based on US CIA reports to them. The President of Korean Airlines also traveled to Japan on his way to Sakhalin to meet the passengers and crew, apparently believing them to be alive. On the other hand, Fred Smith, Congressman McDonald’s administrative assistant, doubted these first reports and went to the Pentagon for verification.
There he learned that the plane had been shot down. (From personal correspondence with the authors.)
It is also logical that the pilot of a stricken aircraft, especially if he continued to have a measure of control over it, would look for the nearest and best place to land. This would certainly be a regular runway rather than the open sea under cloudy skies in the dark.
The problem with this view is that there is no other evidence to support it and some of the early reporters later recanted; whereas, there is considerable evidence from a variety of sources to support the contention that the plane landed on the water off Moneron. None of the reports of a landing on Sakhalin specify an airfield or designate any specific landing site. It is conceivable that “Sakhalin” may have been used to refer to the general area of the large island and that it was passed along as being more precise than it really was meant to be.
Moneron
Here he was given special treatment but was not allowed to communicate with anyone. In the summer of 1990, he was taken to the transportation prison in Karaganda. Here, as an unknown prisoner whose file is sealed by the KGB, he remained. As of 1995, all efforts to obtain additional information from the Karaganda prison have failed. The congressman’s present location is unknown-it may be there or he may have been moved since then.
Child Passengers
Efforts to track down the children of KAL 007 have been very difficult. Many of the youngest ones were probably adopted into local families. Some information was obtained about two young Caucasian sisters, we believe they were the Grenfell children, Stacey and Noelle, ages 3 and 5, of Rochester, NY. It appears that they were placed in an orphanage in Vladivostok until 1990. The older child, at about 12, was sent to Medical School 3, a type of vocational high school, associated with the city hospital in Khabarovsk for training. The girl in question, whom we think is Noelle, graduated from there three years later then was taken elsewhere and her file removed from the school and hospital. At this point, her trail was lost. This information came from the director of the school.
A Female Passenger
Sources provided information on one young Oriental woman who was set to work felling timber in the area of Tynda, Siberia. Prior to 1985, she lost her left arm below the elbow in a work accident.
Subsequently, she was sent across the vast Siberian landmass to the extremely isolated village of Nakhodka on the Tazovskaya Guba (Inlet) above the Arctic Circle where she remained until sometime in the late summer of 1991 or 1992. By this time, she was married and had several children. This village consists of some 20-30 houses occupied by local fishermen and a few Russian exiles. The villagers live in sub-human conditions with almost no contact with the outside world. Winter lasts for most of the year and half the year is spent in Arctic darkness. The conditions are so gruesome that the villagers-few of whom speak Russian-care for nothing but survival and vodka.
The villagers of Nakhodka thought that the woman was of indigenous Nenets origin because of her Oriental features. She did not mix with and was generally unknown to them. They were aware that she had been removed by men in authority. This may have been because the KGB had become aware of efforts by Avraham Shifrin and his Research Institute to locate the woman. He had tried to get his people to this village a year earlier, before she was moved, but promised funding to support the effort did not come through. By the time he was able to raise the necessary funds and recruit volunteers for this very dangerous mission, the woman was gone.
An important point to note is that, even when prisoners were released for whatever reason, they were often sent to isolated villages such as Nakhodka. While apparently having freedom of movement, there was no escape from the pervasive KGB scrutiny. The Soviet KGB used local informants to control residents of such villages. The informants were in turn controlled by threats to the safety of family members who were taken into custody for just this purpose-to serve as “leverage.” The KGB would select trusted members of the community to be their informants. They would then test them by having someone utter anti-Soviet remarks in their presence. When an informant did not report such a remark to his KGB “handler”, he would be informed that members of his family would be deprived of food. If it happened again, they would be shot.
Shifrin considered the ingenuity of the KGB to be both “diabolical and 100 per cent effective.”
Even though the name has changed, the KGB is still as pervasive and powerful as ever, even though it may keep a lower profile. Russian President Vladimir Putin was with the KGB before entering into politics.
Moneron Island
In regards to a water landing off Moneron, there are a variety of sources, both official and unofficial, that supports this. We consider it highly unlikely that they would (or could) conspire to present a common false message.
CIA/NSA sources as reported in the Republican Staff Study/”CIA Report”: There are several “special intelligence” or NSA reports included in this study referring to radar tracking of the flight and the behavior of Soviet Air Force planes.
These reports include the information that KAL 007 descended from an altitude of over 30,000 feet to 1,000 feet in a period of twelve minutes in a constantly decelerating rate of speed. When the plane went off Soviet radars it was dropping at an average rate of 22.2 feet per second.
The following excerpt relates to the flight path:
The geographic coordinates, showing where KAL-007 was hit, where it then went, and where it disappeared from Soviet radars, are known from special intelligence with a fair degree of precision, and these points have been potted on U.S. Intelligence maps. For example, at 9 minutes after being hit, and at an altitude of 5,000 feet, KAL-007’s last tracked location, it was located approximately at co-ordinates 4617N-14115E. The special intelligence showing radar tracks indicates a flight path from Sakhalin Island toward Moneron Island, approaching from the North headed toward the South, and a ditching or crash site probably inside Soviet territorial waters, reportedly 2.6 kilometers North of Moneron Island, according to the June, 1991 NSA re-analysis. (Republican Staff Study/”CIA Report” ppg. 46-47)
The following excerpt relates to the location of the site:
According to special intelligence, one of Pilot Osipovich’s wingmen reported abut 15 minutes after KAL-007 disappeared from Soviet radar that he was making “reference point circles.” This fact suggests that this interceptor was circling over the probable ditching site or crash site of KAL-007, so that Soviet air defense radars could more precisely locate the point.
Soviet interceptors circled Moneron Island, according to special intelligence… (Republican Staff Study/”CIA Report”, pg. 54)
Soviet transcripts in the ICAO report: The transcripts of Soviet ground communications appended to the 1993 ICAO report and presented by Schlossberg in Chapter Three of Rescue 007, “Lost Over Moneron”, make it abundantly clear that the Soviet military authorities knew the plane had gone off radar over Moneron after turning around the island. Within minutes of the plane disappearing from their screens two different rescue operations were ordered. Smirnykh Air Base Fighter Division Acting Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Novoseletski called for rescue helicopters to be sent to the area and Deputy Commander of the Far East Military District Gen. Strogov called for all ships in the vicinity of Moneron to be sent to the island immediately, both Border Guard and civilian ships.
Eye witnesses as reported in the Republican Staff Study /”CIA Report”: There are two significant reports recorded in the Republican Staff Study. The first, on page 47, states simply that Japanese fisherman in the area testified that KAL 007 circled Moneron Island. The second report is quoted here in full:
The recent émigrés provide new information that KAL-007 actually ditched successfully in Soviet territorial waters between Moneron Island and Sakhalin Island, and reportedly that many passengers, including Congressman Larry McDonald, may have survived. The ditched plane was reportedly recovered largely intact by KGB Border Guard boats under the command of KGB General Romanenkov, and it was stripped of all its surviving passengers and their luggage. The émigrés also report that a Soviet helicopter pilot saw KAL-007 in one piece on the surface of the ocean. It was then towed to Soviet territorial waters near Moneron, and deliberately sunk in shallow waters inside Soviet territorial limits.
But General Romanenko [sic] reportedly did not know what to do with the survivors and their luggage, and he forgot to retrieve the black boxes. He was reportedly disciplined by Ogarkov, relieved, and sent to the Gulag himself, because he made mistakes and knew too much. (Republican Staff Study/”CIA Report”, pg 75)
Russian émigré report to Bert Schlossberg-from Rescue 007:
The morning of August 9, 1991, Exie and I entered the crowded lobby of the Jerusalem Hilton. We had come to meet Reuben V., a former map maker assigned to Soviet Air Defense battery-Military unit 1845. This was the radar unit that, according to Shifrin, had tracked KAL 007 to a safe water landing…
Reuben, in such ways, conveyed to us the following story: On September 1, 1983, his commanding officer, while yet a lieutenant on night duty serving at Military Unit 1845 located on Soviet Gavan (the east coast of Russia across from Sakhalin Island), had photographed his radar screen which had been following the flight of KAL 007 for several minutes prior to its being shot down. After missile impact, the radar had continued tracking the jumbo jet for over 12 minutes-until it had descended to Point Zero [1,000 ft.-the lowest level radar could track]. The name of Reuben’s superior officer was Ryzhkov. Ryzhkov and the whole of Military Unit 1845 were part of the underground staff headquarters located at Komsomolsk-na-amure.
“Why would anyone tell you all this?” I asked him. “Especially in light of the penalties?”
“He was drunk,” Reuben told us. “And he was bitter. They had humiliated him-he had been passed over for promotion while others involved in the incident went up a grade. And when he inquired of the KGB why this was so, they told him that it was because he had failed to load the camera. But Ryzhkov knew better.” (Rescue 007 ppg. 42-44)
Japanese radar showing KAL 007 to have flown past and west of Sakhalin as reported in the ICAO report:
At 23:30 hours [UTC or Greenwich Mean Time] JMSA [Japanese Maritime Safety Agency] received information from JDA [Japanese Defense Agency] that an aircraft had been observed on radar about 100 NM northeast of Wakkanai, moving in a southwesterly direction. This contact was last observed by the JDA Wakkanai radar surveillance station at 18:29 hours. Following receipt of the above information, JMSA dispatched two patrol vessels to the area west of Sakhalin Island and prepared two aircraft for take-off at Wakkanai Airport. Between 06:10 and 14:30 hours, JMSA dispatched eight additional patrol vessels to the waters west of Sakhalin Island. (ICAO 1993 paragraph 1.11.5, pg. 17)
While this does not point directly to Moneron, it clearly shows a flight in that direction beyond Sakhalin and a search effort in the waters between Sakhalin and Moneron or even waters west of Moneron itself.
Izvestia articles: The Izvestia articles contain mutually contradictory material and testimony and, as such, are considered reliable only to the extent that they agree with other sources. That being said, there is a reference to KAL 007 circling twice around Moneron before descending to (as thought by the author) a crash landing.
The main problem with a water landing off of Moneron is the extreme difficulty of accomplishing such a feat. Yet, airline pilots do receive training for this eventuality and procedures for ditching passenger aircraft are provided on all airlines. While reports of airliners ditching at sea are rare, it has happened with passengers, in all cases, surviving. (See Aircraft Ditchings for further information.) Additionally, KAL 007 pilot Chun Byung-In, a colonel in the Korean Air Force, was a seasoned veteran, highly skilled in flying large aircraft. Because of his skill, he had seen service as pilot on the Korean presidential aircraft flying Korea’s president to the US in 1982. If landing the Boeing 747 on the sea could be done, Captain Chun could have done it.
At the time of landing, it was dark and there was full cloud cover at 2,000 meters.
In addition to this, we have received a second hand report that a US Air Force service man stationed near Wakkanai, Japan at the time of the shoot down, stated that the area in question is visible from the hills near there. He claims that no rescue operations were observed. However, there is a problem with this in that Moneron is about 45 nautical miles from Wakkanai (54 statute miles, 86 kilometers). The nearby islands of Rebun and Rishiri have peaks over 1,700 meters (over 5,000 feet) high but the peak on Hokkaido nearest to Wakkanai is about 15 miles inland and only reaches 427 meters (Planet Earth Macmillan World Atlas). We do not know where the US observation posts, referred to by the Airman, are located but, if they are on Hokkaido near Wakkanai, they would not be high enough to see to Moneron. As of this writing, we have not been able to determine if there are hills near Wakkanai that are high enough for this observation. If anyone reading this knows about this, please convey the information to us.
In addition to the difficulty of landing, the plane would have to remain afloat long enough for passengers and baggage to be removed. Baggage in the cargo hold could not be removed while the plane was afloat. We believe that all baggage was removed. This could be accomplished by divers after the plane sank by opening the cargo doors under water. Another possibility is that this particular plane was outfitted with a special cargo container on the main deck so that the below-deck area could be used for other purposes. Korean Airlines did this with at least sixteen of their aircraft. We are unable to determine whether or not this particular plane was so equipped.
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What happened to the surviving passengers and crew after they were captured by the Soviets?
Our knowledge of the whereabouts of members of passengers and crew of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, shot down on August 31, 1983, is based primarily on information received by the Research Centre for Prisons, Psychprisons and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the USSR. This research center was established by the late Avraham Shifrin, an Israeli who had, himself, spent time in the Soviet prison camp system. As a major in the Red Army and prosecutor for the Krasnodar Region, northeast of the Crimea, he was responsible for sending many to the Gulags. After he himself was convicted on charges of spying for the US and Israel, he was sentenced to ten years on the harshest of prisons; then seven years of exile in Kazakhstan. Mr. Shifrin maintained an extensive network of contacts within the Soviet Union and its successor states. Much of the information that we have was obtained at great personal risk by his contacts.
The Centre’s investigations in 1989 to 1991 determined that the passengers and crew of KAL 007 were taken, upon rescue, to the KGB Coast Guard base on Sakhalin. Within a few days (by September 4, 1983), everyone was taken to the KGB base at Sovetskaja Gavan on the Siberian mainland opposite Sakhalin, roughly 600 miles north of Vladivostok. Here the men, women and children were divided into separate groups. The men and women were taken by train to Tynda on the Baikal-Amur Railway about 800 miles inland where at least some were put to forced labor. The male adults were, at some point, distributed to a number of different camps throughout Siberia some of which were camps that also held American POWs and other foreign prisoners. These camps are identified as camps for foreigners by their total isolation and the lack of villages around them.
Normally, when prisoners are released from prison camps they are required to continue living in exile near the prison. Their families join them and villages grow up around the camps. Foreign prisoners are not released; there are no villages around their prisons.
Congressman Lawrence P. McDonald, Democrat, 7th District, Georgia, was separated from the rest of the passengers and taken by special air transport to Moscow on or about Sept. 8, 1983. A special KGB guard unit was brought from Khabarovsk to accompany him. The KGB had a fleet of special aircraft, the 910xx series that was used exclusively for transporting high profile prisoners, VIPs, and others requiring the strictest security. These were used for even very short trips rather than using overland transportation.
The child passengers were kept in Sovetskaja Gavan in a specially established isolated temporary orphanage until the end of October.
They were then gradually transferred to various orphanages in Vladivostok, Omsk and Barnaul, both near Novosibirsk, and Kazakhstan based on their racial identity. The intent was to assimilate them into the predominant racial populations in these areas.
Less than 4 months before the disappearance of KAL-007, Larry McDonald spoke on CNN’s Crossfire about the New World Order plan of global governance and rule.
- KAL 007: Timeline of Interception and Shootdown
- Rescue 007 The Shoot Down of KAL 007: the Untold Story
