Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site tekig1.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!tekid!tekig1!brads
From: brads@tekig1.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Korean Jet parse date string
Message-ID: <1309@tekig1.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Sep-83 15:28:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekig1.1309
Posted: Wed Sep  7 15:28:28 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Sep-83 07:17:50 EDT
References: <395@5941ux.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 30


    (References: rocheste.2765)

    Apparently it is true that a Korean Air Lines 747 jumbo jet was shot
    down by a single heat seeking air-to-air missle fired  from  a  USSR
    MiG fighter plane.  I am sure that both sides see this  as  a  major
    blunder that should be avoided at all costs in the future.  

    ...

    Ken Lee
    5941ux!kfl

>From what I understand, the USSR does not see this as a blunder, public or
private.  On the MacNeil-Lehrer report last Friday (9/2), they talked with
a Soviet defector named Schevenko (sp, I'm sure).  He was  a  rather  high
ranking official, (the highest ever to defect) and claimed that  it  would
have been hard for Andropov (or whoever was the highest official consulted
with) to say "No, don't  shoot  it  down.   It's a  civilian  plane."  The
Russians are paranoid, and also remember that the '77 plane made  it  1000
miles into Soviet territory before biting  it.   Rumor  has  it  that  the
person responsible for the delay in shooting down  that  plane  was  later
executed!  Can anyone verify this?  Anyway, the point is  that  there  are
tight rules in the USSR that say if a plane does X, shoot first  and  find
survivors later.  This was a procedural, not a moral issue for them to deal
with.  (No, I'm NOT saying they did the right thing!) 

Brad Srebnik
Tektronix / Univ. of Washington
{decvax | ucbvax | uw-beaver | allegra}!tektronix!tekig!brads