| August 31, 1983 |
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 departs from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City with final destination being Kimpo International Airport, Seoul, Korea. The plane, a Boeing 747 wide-body passenger liner stopped in Anchorage, Alaska for refueling. At the same time, companion flight KAL 015, carrying Senator Jesse Helms, Senator Steven Simms, and Congressman Carroll Hubbard, Jr. of Kentucky, stopped over. Senator Helms sent word to invite Congressman McDonald, a passenger on KAL 007 to join his group. Word came back that McDonald was sleeping and did not wish to be disturbed. |
| September 1, 1983 |
KAL 007 shot down by Soviet
fighters. Initial reports, based on message from pilot monitored in
Narita, Japan, and other sources, was that plane landed safely on
Sakhalin. US Secretary of State George P. Shultz announced that plane took 12
minutes to disappear off radar screens.
The
next day, reports indicated that plane had been totally destroyed. |
| September 5, 1983 |
President Ronald Regan speaks
on the incident, condemning the Soviets. Text of televised speech is
available on the Internet here. |
| November - December 1983 |
Five top
secret memos are sent to Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov
describing the contents of the Black Boxes retrieved
by the Soviets and their efforts to deceive the West. |
| August 29, 1988 |
What
Happened to Flight 007? by Robert W. Lee published in The New
American. The article asks questions about initial
reports that KAL 007 landed on Sakhalin, the absence of luggage or bodies,
the paucity of debris and related issues—calls for thorough
investigation and raises the issue of the possibility of the survival of
those aboard. |
| 1989 |
Avraham and Eleanora Shifrin
start investigating the incident through their Research Centre for
Prisons, Psychprisons and Forced Labor Concentration Camps of the USSR. |
| June 1990 |
Top
KGB official sends letter to Avraham Shifrin containing names of top KGB-GRU
officers and institutes involved in a secret KAL 007 commission. |
| November 1990 |
Avraham Shifrin informs
Senator Jesse Helms that eye witnesses had seen KAL 007 land and
passengers leave, and that black boxes had been retrieved. |
| December 1990 - Early 1991 |
Russian
journal Izvestia publishes two series of articles concerning KAL 007.
These articles report that Soviet divers who explored the submerged Boeing
747 were surprised to find neither bodies nor luggage. This is
consistent with Shifrin's contention that the passengers had been rescued. |
| May 1991 |
Avraham
Shifrin transfers results of 2-year investigation to office of Senator
Jesse Helms. Helms’ aids, Dr. James P. Lucier, David Sullivan and Victor
Fedei, visit Shifrin and receive access to all his information. |
| June 1991 |
Helms’ aid, Sullivan,
informs Shifrin that materials were turned over to CIA.
Helms orders report to be prepared.
Republican Staff Study prepared drawing on Shifrin’s material and
information from US intelligence sources, CIA, NSA, Defense Intelligence
Agency. Report kept secret until late 1992.
Senator Bill Bradley writes Gorbachev asking
for full record of Soviet findings to be shared publicly. |
| July 11, 1991 |
Avraham Shifrin, Executive
Director, Research Center for Prisons, Psychiatric Prisons and
Forced-Labor Camps of the USSR, publishes first press release on KAL 007. |
| December 10, 1991 |
Senator Jesse Helms writes to
President Boris Yeltsin concerning KAL 007.
In his letter, Helms asks for answers to specific questions based on Shifrin’s
material and the Republican Staff
Study. |
| March 21, 1992 |
Russia
1 TV reveals that Russian Defense Ministry has black boxes. (Korea Times,
March 24, 1992) |
| June 17, 1992 |
Boris
Yeltsin reveals existence of KGB memo reporting the existence of
documents related to KAL 007.
Speaking in Washington, Yeltsin said, "It was a
memorandum from (the) KGB to the Central Committee of the
Communist Party where it says that such a tragedy has taken
place, and so on and so forth, and that there are documents
which would clarify the entire picture. And the next line
then says these documents are so well concealed that it is
doubtful that our children will be able to find them, those who
come after us will be able to
find them." (UPI, Washington, June 17, 1992) |
| August 15, 1992 |
Washington
Times reports that the U.S. Delegation to the U.N. played tapes of U.S.
intercepts of cockpit voice recordings from Soviet search and rescue
aircraft picked up about four hours after KAL 007 was shot down.
These recordings reveal the fact that the Soviets knew they had
shot down a Boeing 747 with American passengers aboard and that two Soviet
interceptors circled Moneron Island for about 90 minutes after the
shoot-down trying to pinpoint the point of impact/landing. |
| September 11, 1992 |
Yeltsin
acknowledges, for the first time, the existence of the Black Boxes.
He also promises to turn over to the South Korean Government a
transcript of the flight recorder contents as found in KGB files. |
| October 16,
1992 |
The five top
secret memos that were sent to Soviet Premier Yuri
Andropov in November - December of 1983 are released by
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and published in Izvestia
issue #228. |
| December
18, 1992 |
ICAO
votes to reopen KAL 007 investigation taking into account newly released
information. |
| January
8, 1993 |
Russia
turns over FDR tapes to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
(Korea Times January 10, 1993) |
| May
28, 1993 |
ICAO Report presented to
Secretary General, United Nations. |
| May 2001 |
Rescue
007: The Untold Story of KAL 007 and Its Survivors
by Bert Schlossberg published. Copies
sent to all members of US Senate and many Congressmen as well as members
of the media. About 600 copies sent out. |
| September 1, 2003 |
Mikhail
Prozumentshchikov, Deputy Director of the Russian State Archives
of Recent History publishes a
statement in RIA Novosti admitting that the Soviets
both knew where KAL flight 007 had come down and were
intentionally trying to keep the Americans, Japanese and others
away from the site. As similar deceptions had not accompanied
other aircraft downings, this indicates a strong motivation
from the very beginning to keep this "crash" hidden. |