Forty years ago, September 1, 1983 was a day of tragedy.
Korean Air Flight 007, which left New York’s JFK Airport that day, was shot down by a Soviet fighter jet over Sakhalin the next day, killing all 269 people on board.
Min-Shik Park, a 32-year-old doctor in the Buffalo, New York area, was sitting in seat “41D” on the flight.
His wife, Ae-Kyung, was seated in row 41, along with their daughter, Sarah Park (4), and son, Graham Park (2), according to the victim list. It was Park’s first trip home in four years. He boarded the plane to celebrate his mother’s birthday, holding the hands of his wife, son, and daughter.
Another passenger, Won-Bok Lim, had a heartbreaking story. She is the mother of Seok-hyung Kim, who immigrated to the United States in 1973. She came to the United States at the invitation of her son, Kim, to celebrate her 60th birthday and dead on her way home.
After being deeply affected by his mother’s tragic passing, Kim made the decision to become a pastor, relinquishing his career as a businessman. Just one year later, in 1984, he went on to establish the Korean Evangelical Church of Long Island.
There were also 62 Americans on the plane, including Congressman Lawrence Patton McDonald.
The impact of that day is captured in a presidential statement held in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States
of America, in tribute to the memory of the slain passengers of Korean Air
Lines flight 007, and as an expression of public sorrow, do hereby appoint
Sunday, September 11, 1983, to be a National Day of Mourning throughout
the United States.
The Soviet Union’s action of firing a missile at a civilian airplane sparked outrage. Protests spread across South Korea and the United States.
In San Francisco, more than 500 people, both Korean and American, gathered outside the Soviet consulate. The protest in front of the South Korean Embassy in Seattle included a two-year-old girl.
Brothers Seung-ho and Seung-il Jang also lost their parents in the incident. At the time, Congressman Mario Biaggi hugged the brothers and said he will plan to introduce legislation in Congress to help them continue their education in the United States.
The tragedy struck so many people at once. Korean Air executives visited the families and got down on their knees to apologize. They promised compensation, but no amount of money could remove their grief.
All the families want is the truth. It is still unclear why Korean Air Flight 007 went off its route.
A later investigation by the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) concluded that Captain Byung-In Chun, then 45, relied on a compass rather than an inertial navigation system (INS) to fly the plane, but the exact cause remains a mystery.
The black box flight recorder that were later handed over by the Russians were also meaningless. The video Russians provided signs of tampering. The victims’ belongings were never returned.
Forty years have passed. The families are still seeking the truth through websites like (rescue007.org).
Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union were able to get to the bottom of it. Aside from the families, no one remembers the day. Not even Korean Air. “There are no commemorative events planned for the 40th commemoration of the incident,” a Korean Air spokesperson told the Korea Daily on August 30.
The tragedy is covered up, but the families are still searching for the truth to uncover.
BY YEOL JANG [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]
