Soviets shoot down Korean plane, claiming it was on spying mission

This week in 1983, the Soviet Union admitted to shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.

All 269 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft were killed, including Larry McDonald, an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives.

The Soviets found the wreckage under the sea on September 15, and found the in-flight recorders in October, but this information was kept secret until 1993.

The Soviets initially denied knowledge of the incident, but later admitted shooting down the aircraft, claiming that it was on a MASINT spy mission.

The incident was one of the most tense moments of the Cold War.

Shortly after, the nuclear early warning system of the Soviet Union reported the launch of multiple USAF Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles from bases in the United States.

These missile attack warnings were correctly identified as a false alarm by an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces.

This decision is seen as having prevented a retaliatory nuclear attack, which would have probably resulted in immediate escalation of the cold-war stalemate to a fullscale nuclear war.

Back on home soil and the National Health Service privatised cleaning, catering and laundering services in a move which Social Services Secretary Norman Fowler predicted would save between £90 million and £180 million a year.

In sport, Steve Ovett regained the world 15,000 metres record with a time of 3min 30.77sec in Rieti, Italy.

In other news, the gold medal won by Daley Thompson, the decathlete, at the previous month’s world championships in Helsinki was stolen from a friend’s car in central London.

A few days before the theft, Daley, the Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European champion, revealed that he liked to give away his medals to friends and supporters.