Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
Also Korean Airlines 007, misidentified by Soviet ground radars and shot down by an SU-15 in 1983.
Never mind. You got it.
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From the pilots statement.
Soviet pilot's recollection of shootdown
In a 1991 interview with
Izvestia, Major Genadi Osipovich, pilot of the Su-15 interceptor that shot the 747 down, spoke about his recollections of the events leading up to the shootdown. Contrary to official Soviet statements at the time, he recalled telling ground controllers that there were "blinking lights".
[40] He continued, saying that "I saw two rows of windows and knew that this was a Boeing. I knew this was a civilian plane. But for me this meant nothing. It is easy to turn a civilian type of plane into one for military use."
[40] He furthermore did not provide a detailed description of the aircraft to the ground controllers: "I did not tell the ground that it was a Boeing-type plane; they did not ask me."
[39][40][note 3]
K-8 missile (the type fired at KAL 007) mounted on the wing of a
Sukhoi Su-15
Commenting on the moment that KAL 007 slowed as it ascended from
flight level 330 to flight level 350, and then on his maneuvering for missile launch, Osipovich said:
They [KAL 007] quickly lowered their speed. They were flying at 400 km/h (249 mph). My speed was more than 400. I was simply unable to fly slower. In my opinion, the intruder's intentions were plain. If I did not want to go into a stall, I would be forced to overshoot them. That's exactly what happened. We had already flown over the island [Sakhalin]. It is narrow at that point, the target was about to get away... Then the ground [controller] gave the command: "Destroy the target...!" That was easy to say. But how? With shells? I had already expended 243 rounds. Ram it? I had always thought of that as poor taste. Ramming is the last resort. Just in case, I had already completed my turn and was coming down on top of him. Then, I had an idea. I dropped below him about two thousand metres (6,600 ft)... afterburners. Switched on the missiles and brought the nose up sharply. Success! I have a lock on.[41]
We shot down the plane legally... Later we began to lie about small details: the plane was supposedly flying without running lights or strobe light, that tracer bullets were fired, or that I had radio contact with them on the emergency frequency of 121.5 megahertz.[42]