The Last Flight of 007
L. Fletcher Prouty, (Gallery May 1985)
The flight of KAL 007: Evidence of Conspiracy
R.B.Cutler, (Cutler Publications, US 1985)
“At one stage it seemed probable that the Freeze movement would halt the (MX) project altogether; only the providential shooting-down of the Korean airliner, KAL007, enabled Reagan to push his appropriations through a startled Congress.” E.P.Thompson, Star Wars booklet.
Prouty and Cutler have completely reinterpreted the KAL007 crash. Denying that the plane was shot down, or that it was ever off course, they assert that the crash was engineered by American agencies and foisted on the USSR as a way to discredit them, fan anti-Communist feeling and rally American opinion behind the Republican-hawk world view. In other words, “Providential?’
The first news most of us had of the crash came on the 2nd September 1983, out of the news conference given by George Schultz the previous day. However the crash happened some twenty hours before the news conference – odd in itself – and, as Cutler has shown, the news story about KAL007 we all remember was not the first published. This story appeared in The New York Times on the 1st September:
“A South Korean airliner with 269 people aboard disappeared this morning near the Soviet island of Sakhalin… according to reports in Tokyo and Seoul. Early reports said the plane..had been forced down by Soviet Air Force planes and that all 240 passengers and 29 crew were believed to be safe. But an airline official in Seoul said this afternoon that an explosion might have occurred in mid-air …. According to a Reuters report from Moscow, the Soviet Union denied that a missing Korean Airlines jumbo jet had been forced to land on Sakhalin.”
Now, those “early reports” had CIA authority, and went as such to Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow and Anchorage – and thence, via Washington, to relatives of American passengers. Was it a simple error? Unlikely – it could easily have been checked with Moscow, after all. US sources have since alleged that the message was a Soviet fabrication (a claim without evidence or motive). As KAL007 never landed on Sakhalin, safely or otherwise, it is reasonable to assume that the “safe on Sakhalin” message was a deliberate lie.
It was a lie with far-reaching effects. Firstly, it set the world’s mind at rest about 007. At the time of the broadcast 007 was several hours late at Seoul – clearly a news story in the making. Moreover, Tokyo, assuming 007 to have been where its pilot told them it was – on the normal Alaska/South Korean route – had sent out a force of rescue ships and aircraft to search the area in which the 747 had, apparently, crashed. The “Sakhalin” message, with its CIA attribution, put a stop to that. And this was the second effect of the message: it made people think of Sakhalin. Up to then the idea that 007 had been off course when it disappeared had not occurred to anyone, there was no evidence for it. From then on the original assessment of the crash – “airliner disappears in mid-flight north of Japan – explosion suspected” – was forgotten, a massive course deviation assumed, and the Soviet air force implicated in the fate of 007.
So, we only have the CIA’s word for it that 007 was ever off course. This answers a lot of questions. The airliner’s supposed course would have required the pilot to change course several times; fly without navigation lights; ignore the radio over which Soviet pilots called the plane, and the tracer they fired at it; and carry on talking to Tokyo throughout, as if nothing was happening. Moreover, it was revealed shortly after the crash that Soviet pilots are frequently called on to deal with US reconnaissance craft (RC 135s), which cross into Soviet airspace from the American base at Okinawa, South Japan, triggering off Soviet radar stations and air defence systems, and recording their signals.
Add to this the fact that the Soviet pilots said to have shot down 007 believed they were chasing an RC-135, and the US admission that there was an RC-135 in the area at the time, and only two hypotheses are left. Either the CIA compelled a Korean pilot to fly a passenger plane into Soviet airspace, at great risk, virtually alongside a plane which was designed for such infringements and could get away quite easily – and all for the sake of a second opinion on Soviet defences; or the plane the Soviet interceptors pursued was an RC-135, 007 was on course when it crashed, and the reason no wreckage from the 747 was ever found in the Sea of Japan is that there isn’t any there. (Instead, the plane is, by now, well hidden in the seven-mile-deep Kurile Trench).
007’s disappearance, then, was the result of an on-board explosion, triggered remotely and timed to coincide with an RC-135’s overflight of Sakhalin and pursuit by Soviet planes. I’d rather not believe this myself, but, as Cutler writes, “Other more palatable explanations, smacking less of fantasy and hate, simply do not measure up to the Where, When and How which the facts of the case dictate.”
The only question left answerless is, why did the Soviets accept responsibility? And this is easier than it looks. After all, the Politburo knew that a Soviet plane had fired at something, and they knew a Korean airliner had crashed. Even if they thought the Schultz story was wrong, once the propaganda had started to flow (“This was the Soviet Union against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among people everywhere” – R. Reagan) no explanation from a Soviet source would have stood a chance.
In short, the Soviets were wrong-footed, painted into a corner of attempting to justify what Schultz told them they had done, and compensating by paying the US back in kind. (“The most horrible rhetoric can be heard each day on TV or radio… the man in the street gets a lot of hatred propaganda” – Yuri Medvedkov, quoted by E.P.Thompson in Double Exposure)
Shortly after the crash I read that an American video arcade owner had re-programmed some machines, so that his customers could shoot down an “invader” called ‘ANDROPOV, COMMUNIST MUTANT FROM OUTER SPACE’. Who’s threatening who?
Phil Edwards
Particular thanks to R.B.Cutler for sending us his booklet and a copy of the Prouty article.
KAL 007 Information Bulletin & Newsletter
The KAL 007 Information Bulletin & Newsletter is a non-profit, non-partisan project, whose purpose is to make available to members of Congress, the families of KAL 007’s victims, the media, and interested citizens recent and background information about the case. Articles, letters, and other information of relevance are welcome. All written work, requests for reprints, and questions should be addressed to the Editor:
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