The Search for KAL-007

The published seismic record of the Swissair 111 crash was recorded 174km from the crash site at LMN Caledonia Mountain in New Brunswick, Canada. (45.8544° N, -64.8063° W) The crash was in 55m water depth the seismic deflection was approximately … Read the rest

Larry Porter obtained copies of Japanese and American air traffic control recordings as well as Soviet interceptor conversations with their ground controllers. Lawrence Porter had previously worked as an Air traffic controller. I believe that this analysis was funded by … Read the rest

In 1991 Japanese journalist RCC journalist Yoshio Sato from Hiroshima TV using a Russian submersible with Moscow’s permission obtained the following videos. The dive location was the official crash location of 46°33.533′N 141°19.683′E in approximately 50m water depth.

At the … Read the rest

The 1993 ICAO report shows data from what is the recovered KAL007 DFDR (Digital Flight Data Recorder). This was handed over by President Yeltsin in 1992. It also includes communications between Anchorage and KAL007 and a transcript of the CVR. … Read the rest

Using Opendrift source code and data of wave, wind and current data from 1983 downloaded from https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/datasets/reanalysis-era5-single-levels?tab=overview (10m wind and waves) and https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/datasets/reanalysis-oras5?tab=overview (currents 0.5m) the debris drift can be modelled for the first few days.

The daily winds for … Read the rest

Each country’s account of the final minutes of KAL007 differ significantly.

The US version has a SU-15 Soviet interceptor trailing KAL007 for 20 minutes, firing the missile at 18:26:20 with the Soviet pilot reporting the target is destroyed 2 seconds … Read the rest

The Chidori Maru was a squid fishing boat operating north of Moneron on the night of incident.  They had an eyewitness account of an aircraft crash within a few km of them and were interviewed both by the papers and … Read the rest

The 1993 ICAO report published the following Soviet radar tracks.

These reportedly show the final minutes of KAL007 and the flight paths of Soviet interceptors. Again using Mapwarper.net the map is georeferenced then input into Qgis and the coordinates of … Read the rest

In the 1993 ICAO report, two radar plots provided by the Russians are included. They are Chart 12 and Chart 13 on page 48 and 50 respectively. In addition another radar chart of KAL-007’s rendezvous with a RC-135 was presented … Read the rest

The full interview in its original Russian can be found here and here. A google translation of this interview can be found here

In the interview Osipovich clearly stated he observed the silhouette of the plane:  “Soon I … Read the rest

KAL007’s last clear communication with Narita ATC prior to the missile being fired was at 16:20 UTC reporting its arrival at NIPPI.  From that position KAL007 estimated its arrival at NOKKA at 18:26.   NOKKA was the next compulsory waypoint … Read the rest

In 1985 the debate in the Diet centred on the flight path data captured by the Air Self-Defence Force at radar sites in Wakkanai and elsewhere on the day of the shooting down, with opposition lawmakers demanding detailed disclosure and … Read the rest

Early evidence suggests much more than a single intruder event over Sakhalin. Whilst the US government struggled to release any information at all, the Hokkaido Shimbun managed to get and publish radar traces from Wakkanai on Sept 1st in their … Read the rest

The flight plan contains many strange annotations. According to the IACO report almost all these annotations were done by Korean airlines staff after the incident.  This is strange as one would think Korean airlines would keep the original as signed … Read the rest

There is ambiguity with passenger count. The official IACO report lists a total of 269 people on board consisting of 240 passengers, 3 cockpit crew, 20 cabin crew and 6 deadheaders (Korean Airlines employees being reassigned). However on the Flight … Read the rest

There is considerable ambiguity with how much fuel was on board KAL-007 when it departed Anchorage. The Flight release sheet shows a total fuel on departure of 253,700lbs. Which is 4500 pounds less than the computerised recommendation. (Captain Chun has … Read the rest

On 14th Sept. 1983 photos of debris said to have come from KAL-007 were published in the Hokkaido Shimbun. The debris was collected near Mombetsu on northern Hokkaido. The debris clearly shows a Pratt and Whitney “Flying Pig” engine logo.… Read the rest

This is just a test post to check functionality.… Read the rest