History
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was a passenger plane flying from New York to Seoul. It accidentally flew into restricted airspace over the Soviet Union in 1983. The flight path was off by a small amount due to a navigation error.
The Soviet military detected the plane and thought it was a spy aircraft from the United States. Because of the high tension between the two countries, they decided to take action to stop the plane from flying over their territory.
A Soviet fighter jet was sent to follow the passenger plane. The pilot fired missiles at the Korean airliner, which caused it to crash into the ocean. All the people on board the flight were lost in this tragedy.
This incident made countries around the world very angry. It became a symbol of the dangerous feelings between the Soviet Union and the West during the Cold War. Governments worked harder to make rules to prevent this from happening again.
