MISSING PLANE/JAPAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200850006-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 27, 2008
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: September 1, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200850006-9
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
1 September 1983
MISSING PLANE/ JENNINGS: Good evening. Everyone but the Soviet Union says
JAPAN that the Soviets did shoot down a Korean 747. Two hundred
sixty-nine passengers and the crew were on board, and in the
absence of any wreckage we can only assume their fate. One of
the passengers was Congressman Larry McDonald of Georgia. The
attack on a commercial airliner, whether the Soviets knew it was
that or not, has caused an outrage. ?????
MCWETHY: American intelligence sources say what was left of the
plane ended up in the northern part of the Sea of Japan. The
debris is within the 12-mile territorial limit of the Soviet
Union. The Russians contend that they repeatedly tried to
signal the aircraft to land by radio and by visual signals.
U.S. sources confirm that the Soviets did radio the Korean
airliner but got no response. The extreme detail with which
Secretary of State Shultz laid out what the U.S. knew about this
incident was, according to intelligence sources, only a fraction
of the material which the National Security Agency and the CIA
had compiled. Nonetheless, it was considered unprecedented in
its precision. STANSFIELD TURNER (Former Director CIA): What
the secretary of state said surely tells the Soviets how good
our capabilities are. It doesn't tell them necessarily how we
got that information.
MCWETHY: Intelligence sources say *Elint spy satellites plus
heat-detecting satellites and listening posts in South Korea and
Japan were all used to gather information on what happened. But
why the Soviets fired at the Korean jetliner still remains a
mystery. TURNER: They don't have to be suspicious. They're
paranoid about people penetrating their air and sea space and
have been over all the years. They have shot down planes
before, but only military planes.
MCWETHY: There are two other theories still unconfirmed. One,
that the Korean plane was somehow fitted with say cameras and
was deliberately over-flying sensitive Soviet military
installations, and two, that the Russians used an electronics
device to confuse instruments in the Korean plane and draw it
off course. Neither of those theories are confirmed. Despite
all the tough talk today by the Reagan administration, Pentagon
sources say there is to be virtually no military show of force
in response., A few F-15 fighters have been moved from Okinawa
to Japan, but as yet nothing else has been ordered, even though
there are two American aircraft carriers at sea in the Pacific.
John McWethy, ABC News, the Pentagon.
Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200850006-9