Posted on 04/09/2017 9:12:12 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Bump
When a South American Air Force bought one of the Korean Airlines’ 707s in the ‘80s, I was sent by my company as an instructor pilot to check out their three crews.
The KAL aircraft had 3 independent overwater nav systems - one each for the captain, copilot, and navigator. According to the KAL SOP (standard operating procedures), they were supposed to be independently programmed. However, they had a “Left / Right / Remote switch that could allow the Nav to program all three systems at once. I cautioned the Air Force guys to NEVER do this because an inadvertent error in setting the latitude/longitude would not be caught. They were good about never doing this.
For years, I wondered if the Koreans were, or did they just dump the programming on the Nav and hope that he did it correctly. Two transposed numbers could have put them right over Russian airspace...
To this day I still believe the Iranian pilot was hell bent on martyring everyone on board as he was on a glide path for the Vincennes.
After another KAL crash (this time due to operator error) in the 90s, I recall reading here (pretty sure it was here) of the infallible attitude of “authority” among KAL pilots, and that they would not accept correction from subordinates, even if they might be right. I wonder if that might have played a role here as well.
Was it common for Su-15s to carry cannon in pods? This is the first I’ve heard that they could do that.
My family flew the same flight as KAL 007 on the 1-year anniversary of the shoot-down. LAX to Anchorage, then on to Seoul and ultimately to our destination of Tokyo for my older brother’s wedding. I was 18 at the time and blissfully unaware of the significance until people started talking about it while we were in the air and nearing Soviet airspace. Thankfully, our pilots had properly functioning equipment and we didn’t get shot down.
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I knew someone who was on KAL 007, when it was shot down. I didn't find out she was on the aircraft till 1985. Her parents were Christian missionaries in Korea, and I think she was planning on doing some missionary work there too.
Kyu Sakamoto, who sang the hit “Sukiyaki”, was killed when KAL 700 was shot down.
It was September, 1976.
I remember it well, from the 60s but I didn't know he was on board.
I will always remember the date the aircraft went down. It was 1 Sep 83, the same day I was promoted to Msgt, in the USAF.
The Congressman from my current GA Congressional District (Kennesaw GA, Cartersville, Adairsville, etc) was on that flight.
Mine too. Larry Macdonald.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: Sakamoto died on August 12, 1985, in the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123, the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history.
Isn’t part of I-75 in that area still designated “Larry Macdonald Memorial Highway” or similar?
Yes....it is a very short part, but there nonetheless as I recall.
Although a Democrat, he was perhaps the fiercest most conservative Democrat in Congress, strongly pro military, and he was relentlessly loyalty to the concept of America First.
There are only two Democrats of whom I’ve ever approved and he was the first, Zell Miller was the second.
I knew the guy who took the photos of Belenko’s MIG. Some of the photos are in the Smithsonian.
Back then, almost every politician in GA was a Democrat. Jim Tysinger and a few others in the state house were about it, on the Republican side.
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