Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (
KE007/
KAL007)
[note 2] was a scheduled
Korean Air Lines flight from
New York City to
Seoul via
Anchorage, Alaska. On September 1, 1983, the flight was shot down by a Soviet
Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor aircraft. The
Boeing 747 airliner was en route from Anchorage to Seoul, but owing to a navigational mistake made by the crew, the airliner drifted from its planned route and flew through Soviet
prohibited airspace over underground silos with
intercontinental ballistic missiles. The
Soviet Air Forces treated the unidentified aircraft as an intruding U.S.
spy plane, and destroyed it with
air-to-air missiles, after firing warning shots. The Korean airliner eventually crashed into the sea near
Moneron Island west of
Sakhalin in the
Sea of Japan, killing all 246 passengers and 23 crew aboard, including
Larry McDonald, a
United States representative.