If you read books on the subject of KAL007 all bar one of them have the cover photograph of a crashing 747, Soviet interceptors, missiles, blood etc. One book stands alone as its cover is a grainy photograph of what appears to be a young school girl of Asian appearance over a silhouette of a aircraft tail descending.
Inside the book there is a better but still grainy image.
At the time of the incident the commander and political commissar of the border post town of Pereputye, south of Nevelsk was Lieutenant Belov. He was interviewed by French investigative reporter Misha Lobko who visited Sakhalin in June 1993.
Belov recalls: “The orders were straightforward: destroy everything and confirm by a report. Then, shut up. Never give out any information. They came with a big ten-ton truck, a ZIL 131- They were sailors. They asked, “Where is the hole?” I showed them. They discharged the ZIL 131 truck into the hole with the help of my soldiers. They brought a forty-four-gallon drum of gas-oil, which they poured over it. Then they set fire to it. It burned for two hours. When everything had burned down, we brought in a bulldozer to crush and disperse what was left. Then we covered it with soil. I telephoned to higher-ups at Nevelsk and reported. I am sure the names and grades of the higher-ups I reported to were phony, but anyway I said, “It is destroyed. ” That’s all.
Misha also was found out that this hole was opened in Nov 1992 where all metal pieces with an identification number were removed and the hole recovered. It was opened again in January 1993 and debris stored in a hanger in Kholmsk where the KGB sorted it and sent some items to Moscow. In March 1993 the remaining items were again buried in the hole. Whilst Misha was there in June 1993 the hole was opened for a third time. Before items were sent to Moscow, Misha was allowed to film some of this debris. There were apparently passports but he was not allowed to film these. However because Misha was of Russian descent and spoke perfect Russian he made friends with some of the officials who showed him the picture which had somehow escaped the fire by being inside a thick leather wallet. They allowed him to take a picture of the photograph of the little girl.
On sept 1, 1993 on the 10th anniversary of the incident, a ceremony was held and a black marble marker was unveiled just south of the port town of Nevelsk. After the ceremony the relatives were taken to this hole in Pereputye and allowed to dig for themselves to search for their lost ones. This event was widely publicised by Associated Press of which one article is shown below. The link to the whole newspaper is https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/f6a9212c-a6c7-4745-a202-88ff878f0e25/content
They were also handed a small amount of items previously uncovered from the hole. However, the photo of the school girl, or the passports were not amongst the items. Misha wondered why.
Misha was working for Japanese broadcaster TBS and because of the human appeal they broadcast the little girls photo during prime time news in both Japan and Korea. Someone recognised the girl and phone the television station. They knew the girl by name and that her father worked for the Korea intelligence service, the KCIA and had gone missing in 1983. After that TBS and Misha were stonewalled everywhere and no further information could be obtained.
The implication of a Korean intelligence person’s wallet being in a hole in the ground in Pereputye and that wasn’t handed to relatives is of course he wasn’t on KAL007 but of another aircraft that crashed at Pereputye.
Misha was also told that the story that the hole at Pereputye was dug to dispose of debris from KAL007 was false. Initially they said an RC-135 aircraft crashed there.
I started looking for Pepeputye but no map has any reference to this name. Перепутье, in Russian translates as: CROSSROADS, -я, genitive plural -тий, neg. A place where roads cross and diverge. At a crossroads (also figuratively: the same as at a crossroads). This is odd as there are no roads south of Nevelsk.
The only google related search I could find was one on ocean currents. At least this showed roughly where the location was. It is roughly in line with the northern tip of Moneron.
Finally, when searching Russian Topomaps I found a map with the village marked with enough detail to accurately identify the location.
Now I had the coordinates I then visited google maps to see satellite photographs. When I zoomed in to full magnification I was surprised to see a small mask over the image at the exact spot. I zoomed out, then zoomed in again and the mask disappeared.
There was not much to see anyway. A hole covered 32 years ago is unlikely to be very exciting. So I decided to visit the location to get an idea of the topography and search for any signs. On arrival to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk the capital of Sakhalin I went about trying to get a guide to take me there. No one had any knowledge of Перепутье. Once I gave them the coordinates no one wanted to take me there due to very swollen rivers that required crossing. It was roughly 10km from the last road so I contemplated walking. Finally I found a guide who agreed to take me but on the condition I hired two 4WD’s for safety so one could tow the other out.
On arrival at Pereputye it was as expected very underwhelming. My plan was to fly my drone over the area in order to get high resolution imagery to search for any signs of where this hole was. This of course was a bit risky, flying a drone over a sensitive Russian military site during the special operation. I did fly the drone but unfortunately DJI