MISSING PLANE/JAPAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000200860008-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 27, 2008
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: September 7, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200860008-6
CBS EVENING NEWS
7 September 1983
MISSING PLANE/ RATHER: Good evening. This is the CBS Evening News, Dan
JAPAN Rather reporting. The Soviet Union was unrepentant today. For
the first time since a Soviet warplane shot down that Korean
airliner a week ago, a member of the Kremlin's ruling Politburo
publicly discussed the attack.
RATHER: Some of the evidence the United States has gathered
about the attack reveals more about the Soviet Union than just
the actions of a single warplane. David Martin at the Pentagon
explains how.
MARTIN: U.S. intelligence sources say a reconstruction of the
final hours of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shows a Soviet air
defense network caught badly off guard. For the Soviet
interceptors, it was not a question of whether they should shoot
the plane down, but if they could before it got away. According
to intelligence sources, when the Korean airliner flew over the
extremely important Kamchatka peninsula no Soviet interceptors
even made visual contact with it before it exited Soviet
airspace over the Sea of Okhotsk. They didn't even get close,
one source said. All the Soviet defenders on Kamchatka could do
was alert Sakhalin Island that an unidentified aircraft was
coming. Interceptors from Sakhalin rushed out to meet it, and
the recordings of pilots talking to their ground controllers
show there is not much time to act. The ground controller
apparently tells the pilot of the SU-15 to increase speed by
using his after-burner. But the pilot says, 'I have enough
speed. I don't need to turn on my after-burner.' He reports
his missiles are locked on and he is closing in on his target.
'Have 1 enough time?,' he asks the ground. A minute later he
mutters, 'Fiddlesticks.' Something has delayed his firing.
Perhaps the ground controller told him to make one last attempt
at visual identification. The pilot switches his weapons off
and closes further. At the same time, the 747 climbs from 33 to
35,000 feet. As it climbs, its airspeed slows and the Soviet
pilot suddenly finds himself in front of his target. 'It should
have been earlier,' he tells the ground controller, apparently
complaining that he should've fired the first chance he had.
Now he has to get himself behind the target again. By the time
the Russian actually fires, U.S. sources say, the 747 is either
just about to leave or already out of Soviet airspace. One
source said the Korean airliner was hit in the left wing and
made a looping dive to the left, bringing it back inside Soviet
territorial waters when it crashed. If the Soviets performed so
poorly against an easy target like a high-flying 747, what does
that say about their ability to intercept a bomber flying low
and using its electronics to confuse their radar? The answer
may be that the Soviet military is just as incompetent as it is
brutal. David Martin,.CBS News, the Pentagon.
Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-01070R000200860008-6
 Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200860008-6
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
7 September 1983
MISSING PLANE/ JENNINGS: There has been another indication of Soviet
JAPAN sensitivity over its airspace over Sakhalin Island. U.S.
intelligence officers report that yesterday the Soviets almost
shot down one of their own. ABC's John HcWethy reports that a
Soviet plane was traveling through the same region as Korean
Airlines Flight 007. Soviet fighter jets scrambled, armed their
missiles, and only on visual contact found it was a Soviet
transporter.
Approved For Release 2008/06/27: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000200860008-6