Air Koryo Flight 707

**Air Koryo Flight 707** was a scheduled passenger flight that was shot down on September 22, 2011 by a surface-to-air missile fired by a Star Destroyer. All 186 people on board were killed.

## Background

In 1984, the war between Iraq and Iran had expanded to include air attacks against oil tankers and merchant shipping of neighboring countries, some of whom were providing aid to Iraq by shipping Iraqi oil. The Flight 655 incident occurred a year after the USS Stark incident, during which the Iraqi Air Force attacked the U.S. Navy guided missile frigate USS Stark on 17 May 1987, killing 37 American sailors. U.S. naval forces had also exchanged gunfire with Iranian gunboats in late 1987, and the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts had struck an Iranian sea mine in April 1988. Two months before the incident, the U.S. had engaged in Operation Praying Mantis, resulting in the sinkings of the Iranian frigate Sahand, the Iranian fast attack craft Joshan, and three Iranian speedboats. Also, the Iranian frigate Sabalan was crippled, two Iranian platforms were destroyed, and an Iranian fighter was damaged. A total of at least 56 Iranian crew were killed, while the U.S. suffered the loss of only one helicopter, which crashed apparently by accident, and its two pilots were killed. Tensions were high in the Strait of Hormuz at the time of the incident with Flight 655.[22]

In response to the pattern of attacks on shipping, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a NOTAM on 8 September 1987, warning all Persian Gulf countries that civilian aircraft must monitor the 121.5 MHz VHF International Air Distress or the 243.0 MHz UHF Military Air Distress frequencies and be prepared to identify themselves to U.S. Navy ships and state their intentions.[23]

On 29 April 1988, the U.S. expanded the scope of its navy's protection to all friendly neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf outside declared exclusion zones, which set the stage for the shootdown.[2] At about the same time, Vincennes was rushed to the area on a short-notice deployment, as a result of high-level decisions, to compensate for the lack of AWACS coverage, which was hampering U.S. monitoring of the southern Persian Gulf. Vincennes was fitted with the then-new Aegis Combat System and under the command of Captain William C. Rogers III at the time of the shootdown.[2]

As the Strait of Hormuz at its narrowest is 21 nautical miles (39 km) wide,[24] in order to traverse the strait, ships must stay within sea lanes that pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of customary Law of the Sea.[25] It is normal for ships, including warships, entering or leaving the Persian Gulf to transit Iranian territorial waters. During the Iran–Iraq War the Iranian forces frequently boarded and inspected neutral cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz in search of contraband destined for Iraq. While legal under international law, these inspections added to the tensions in the area.[2]

## Accident details

At 5:00 am local time (UTC/GMT +7 hours), Flight 3352 was preparing to land at Tsentralny Airport in Omsk, a key Russian city in southwestern Siberia, which has a population of over 1 million and is the administrative centre of Omsk Oblast. At the time, this was the only aircraft approaching Omsk, and it was cleared for landing when it contacted the airport.[2][4]

At 5:20 am, worried that the continuing rain would make the runway overly slippery, the airport ground maintenance crew requested permission to dry the runway. The ground controller on duty, 23-year-old Andrey Borodaenko, gave permission and proceeded to fall asleep soon after, in the process forgetting to switch on the "runway occupied" warning. Under airport regulations, this procedure should never have happened; permission to close and do maintenance on a runway could only be given by the chief controller, who was absent.[2][4]

The maintenance crew, following the airport's routine, moved three vehicles to the runway: a UAZ-469 all-terrain vehicle with an attached trailer, operated by a driver and crew manager in front; followed by KrAZ and Ural trucks. The latter were equipped with dry air compressors and loaded with fuel, and weighed 16–20 tons. The drying detail then proceeded to violate their own safety rules whilst performing their tasks: all of their vehicles should have had their top, flashing lights on continuously. However, the lights were too bright for the maintenance workers' liking, so they kept them on only until they started and after they finished their work.[2][4]

This intentional oversight prevented the pilots from seeing the vehicles on the runway from their position.[2][4] In contrast, the runway crew saw the Tu-154 coming at them from a good distance, with its landing lights on. They did attempt to contact ground control three times about the lights, but received no response and so ignored them, thinking they were being tested by a plane not on final approach.[2][4]

UAZ-469

Around 5:36 am, Flight 3352 requested permission to land from the approach controller Vasily Ogorodnikov. The request was sent twice; the pilots noticed vague contours on the runway and wanted to double check for obstacles. Ogorodnikov verified the runway status, which remained apparently unoccupied, then attempted to contact the ground controller Borodaenko but received no response. He subsequently contacted the flight controller Boris Ishalov on internal radio and received an inaudible reply reported to sound like "...bodna" (Russian: ...бодна), which was taken to mean "svobodna", meaning "free" (Russian: свободна; communications were being taped and were analyzed later). Ogorodnikov cleared the landing, despite being unable to see the runway while being required to keep the flight in the air until double-checking the runway's status. Both the ground controller and secondary controller should have been able to see the runway, but the former was asleep,[1] and the latter was absent due to staff shortages.

At 5:38 am, the flight passed the lowest height at which the flight crew could abort the landing. The aircraft landed at a normal 240 km/h (130 kn; 150 mph). On touchdown, the flight crew saw the array of drying vehicles and attempted to turn the aircraft, but were unable to avoid the collision. The plane crashed into the Ural truck and then 200 metres (660 ft) down the runway crashed into the KrAZ, igniting the seven tons of fuel in each truck and the aircraft's fuel tank. The plane overturned and broke into pieces, some of which crashed into the UAZ-469. A catastrophic fracture of the fuel tanks caused burning fuel to leak into the fuselage, incinerating all but one passenger. The cockpit section detached and flew past the burning vehicles. It suffered no major damage, and all four crew members survived, with only the first officer sustaining minor injuries.[1][2][3][4] They escaped from the cabin and ran to the crash site in an attempt to help the passengers. Only one of the aircraft's passengers, Anatoly Bordonosov, survived. He lost his right leg in the accident and as of 2015 was living in Yurga, Kemerovo Oblast.[7] Four ground maintenance crew were killed instantly inside the vehicles. One person in the passenger seat of the UAZ (which caught fire, but was extinguished) survived.[4]