The Worst, but Not the First

In the past 30 years, attacks on civilian airliners have been rare. The Soviets, however, seem to have a quick trigger. Last week's incident marked the second time in just five years that Soviet fighters have shot down a passenger jet. In 1978, Korean Air Lines (KAL) Flight 902 with 110 passengers and crew on board was cruising routinely from Paris to Seoul when navigational equipment apparently malfunctioned. Disoriented, the pilot veered 180DEG off course and penetrated Soviet airspace near Murmansk, above the Arctic Circle. For two hours the jet flew serenely over sensitive strategic submarine and bomber bases before Sukhoi-15 interceptors finally scrambled to intercept it.

The Soviets claimed that the fighter pilots lowered their landing gear and flashed landing lights to signal the jetliner to descend, but were ignored. The co-pilot later denied that any signals were given. In any event, Soviet commanders, fully aware that it was a commercial plane, gave the order to attack. One interceptor then fired two heat-seeking missiles. The second struck an engine on the 707 and blew a hole in the fuselage, killing two passengers and injuring 13. Crippled but still under power, the jet plunged from 35,000 ft. to 3,000 ft. before leveling off. It crash-landed 45 minutes later on an ice-covered lake. The Soviet authorities never owned up to the attack. Instead, they totted up the expenses of rescuing the survivors, including food and lodging for three days and transportation from the crash site to Murmansk, and blithely submitted a bill for $100,000 to the South Korean government. The Koreans did not pay.

Perhaps only the Soviets could display such gall, but other countries have also been guilty of firing on commercial flights. In 1955, two Bulgarian MiG-15s fitted with cannons attacked an off-course El Al Constellation airliner that was apparently flying into Bulgarian airspace. The plane, en route from London to Israel, crashed in Bulgaria, killing all 58 passengers and crew aboard. After an outraged protest from Israel, which accused Bulgaria of "shocking recklessness," the government issued a formal apology. It said the fighter pilots had been "too hasty," and agreed to pay compensation to the victims' families.

In 1973, in the midst of a sandstorm that grounded all other commercial flights, a Libyan Airlines 727 bound for Cairo blundered into airspace above the Israeli-occupied Sinai Desert, which had been declared an official war zone. Israeli officials, worried by reports that Arab terrorists planned to use a civilian airliner in a kamikaze attack on an Israeli city, ordered up Phantom F-4E interceptors. When the French pilot of the jet seemed to ignore warning shots signaling him to land at a nearby military base, the Israeli pilots shot the Boeing down, killing 108 of the 116 passengers aboard. Tapes of cockpit conversations from the crash later revealed that the pilot had mistaken the Israeli interceptors for a friendly Egyptian fighter escort. Chastened, the Israeli government issued an apology and paid more than $3 million in compensation.

By contrast, the downing of two civilian Air Rhodesia planes by rebel troops during the guerrilla war that brought black rule to Zimbabwe was nothing but coldblooded. In 1978, foot soldiers of Joshua Nkomo's Patriotic Front Army fired Soviet SA-7 missiles at a Viscount airliner as it flew from Salisbury to Kariba, 175 miles to the northwest. Of the 56 aboard, 38 died in the crash. Then, after injured passengers crawled from the wreckage, the guerrillas arrived and again opened fire, killing ten of the survivors.

Whites in Zimbabwe still have not forgiven Nkomo for his elation over the massacre, nor for the subsequent rebel rocket attack on yet another Viscount in 1979, in which 59 passengers and crew died. His only regret, said Nkomo of that incident, was that the principal target of the attack, Rhodesian Defense Chief Peter Walls, was not aboard the flight. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.