Following Orders Without Question

 

On this day in 1978, a major navigational error by the flight crew of a Korean Airlines Boeing 707 airliner deviated approximately 150° to the right of its planned route from Paris, France, to Anchorage, Alaska overflying Soviet territory. A Soviet Air Force Sukhoi Su-15TM interceptor was scrambled to the airliner, the pilot first thinking it was a USAF RC-135 recon plane. Upon closer view, it was identified as Korean Airlines yet his superiors ordered him to shoot it down. One of two missiles struck the airliner removing the end of the left wing. Two passengers were struck by flying debris and killed. The airline pilot made a heroic belly landing on a frozen lake without further incident. The following summer the airliner was completely dismantled.