"On September 1, 1983, Korean Air Lines flight 007, on its way from Anchorage, Alaska to Seoul, Korea, carrying 269 passengers and crew, strayed off its intended course and entered into Soviet airspace. A Soviet Sukhoi 15 fighter jet, piloted by Major Gennadie Osipovich, was sent up to destroy the intruding Boeing 747.

"This, at the height of the Cold War era, was a major international incident. At the time, it was - and still is - widely believed that the plane "exploded", "plummeted uncontrollably" into the ocean, and was "destroyed", killing all aboard, including Lawrence ("Larry") Patton McDonald, Representative (D), 7th District, Georgia.

"The evidence, however, tells another story. Japanese radar trackings, Soviet ground-to-ground and ground-to-air communications, KAL 007's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, the debris (and lack thereof), eye-witness testimonies... All these and more, when pieced together, tell of a plane which was, indeed, damaged, but which managed to land safely, and of passengers who survived and were rescued by the Russians -- only to be imprisoned to this day." Rescue 007 Home

Wow, George, I am going to keep on reading but I wanted to thank you for the info!

Interesting ; staunch anti-commie Congressman Lawrence McDonald was on that flight. However according to reports it was only because of bad weather that he made the connection to that flight.

That is an interesting conspiracy theory twist on what happened.

Never heard of that one and I just watched the Discovery Channel's dissection of the event:
Unsolved History: KAL-007 DVD -- Discovery Channel Store -- 710822

Unsolved History, I love it!