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Project Jenny KLIK - 1st Inf Di v Women in Vietnam RELATED-- To AFVN To Saigon To Vietnam Further Afield Index
From: Marc Yablonka
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Frank,
Exactly one year after the KAL 007 tragedy, I was on a KAL flight out of LAX with my then soon to be first wife. We were bound for Miyazaki, Japan, as it turned out, via Anchorage, over the Salkalins, on into Seoul--the very same route 007 had flown. What was disturbing was that, while waiting to check our baggage, we learned that there was a wide difference of opinion among the passengers as to the route the flight to Seoul would be taking. Our travel agent had told us that the flight was via Honolulu. Other passengers had been told the flight was through Tokyo. Other passengers had been told it was a direct flight. As far as I remember, no one had been told the route would duplicate that of the ill-fated 007 from the year before. In retrospect, I surmised at the time that KAL had launched an intended disinformation campaign so as to allay passenger fears, but it sure didn't work in my case! I was on pins and needles all the way into Seoul. In any event, I'm here to tell you the plane landed safely and the lady who became my first wife and I connected to our Japanese carrier (TOA) on into Miyazaki. P.S. While hanging out in the back galley, I met a British fellow who claimed to be a British Commando. He divulged that he was on board for security reasons. I had no idea of knowing whether that was true or he was simply a legend in his own mind!
Marc
From: Dick Ellis
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
I was in Washington at the time and Senator Jesse Helms was supposed to be on that flight but canceled at the last minute. The FBI and the CIA got involved in the investigation after that.
KAL 007 and JAL 123
September 2020
From: Randy Kafka
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Link to Kyu Sakamoto's song, Sukiyaki: Click Here
From: Preston Cluff
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Briefly, Frank, as we're supposed to stay away from politics here; it's a shame all those innocent people had to die. I was in Korea at the time, and purchased a shirt denouncing the Soviet action. Then, I believe many months later, the truth came to the fore. I'll leave it at that.
Preston
From: Mel Snodgrass
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Sakamoto was aboard Japan Airlines Flight 123 (departing from Tokyo) Aug. 12, 1985 heading to Osaka when it crashed into two ridges of Mount Takamagahara in Ueno, Gunma,
From: Marc Yoblonka
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Ken, Actually, Mr. Sakamoto, who sang the song called Sukiyaki in the States, died in a Japan Airlines 747 crash over Kyushu, Japan along with hundreds of others. Not KAL 007.
Marc
From: Bobbie Keith
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
NOTE: Lived in Japan for four years -- and met Kyu Sakamoto - can still remember the words to Sukiyaki - (An army brat at Grant Heights)
From: Frank Rogers
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Did not see a mention in the news that Sep 1 (US time) in 1983, Soviet Socialist Republics shot down the Korean Airliner with 269 people on board. I was working in Japan & did a lot of reports for Mutual News.
FrankR
From: Frank Rogers
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Did not see a mention in the news that Sep 1 (US time) in 1983, Soviet Socialist Republics shot down the Korean Airliner with 269 people on board. I was working in Japan & did a lot of reports for Mutual News.
FrankR
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
I stand corrected.
Ken
AFVN Group Conversations
From: Jim White
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Hi,
I remember both the KAL 007 and the JAL 123 accidents very well. Of course, I was in Japan both times and had a friend who was on the KAL 007 flight, but fortunately the one the net day.
Kyu Sakamoto was on the JAL 123 flight. It was right at the end of the Obon Festival *Festival of the Dead) and was therefore packed with people returning to Osaka from Tokyo. Kyu Sakamoto was one of those on the plane. He was a famous singer in Japan and was of his songs was Sukiyaki which hit the top of the charts in the US thanks to a bet between two DJs. The real name of the song (translated) was Looking up and Having Hope. One of the DJs bet the other that he could make any song hit the top of the charts. They picked Sakamoto's song and named it Sukiyaki most likely because it was the only Japanese word outside of Sayonara that they knew. It made the top of the charts but I was most disgusted at the charade they made of a nice song.
Another person on the JAL 123 flight was the son of a professor I worked with at Tezukayama Gakuin University--I went to the funeral.
The JAL flight ran into trouble because it has previously hit its tail during a bad landing and the pressure barrier between the cabin and the tail of the plane had been damaged and then poorly repaired. It "blew" as the plane regained altitude and took out increase the power on one side or the other and make a slow turn. He kept the plane in the air for nearly an hour as it wandered over the mountains in the center of Japan and then crashed into one of them. The crash occurred about 30 minutes before dark. The USAF at Yokota AB called the Japanese air authorities and said "We have rescue helicopters ready to go," but the Japanese reply was "There can not be any survivors so we will go tomorrow morning." It turned out that four people did survive the crash but only one of them lived to be rescued the next day.
Jim W
An Afterword
Here in Japan there are memorials to both crashes. Please go toKAL007and/or JAL123on Wikipedia. I see news of those who lost friends and relatives in JAL123 crash in the Japanese news each year going to that memorial, but I don't recall anything like that for the KAL007 crash, at least not in recent years. Jim W
From: Frank Rogers
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Sakamoto Kyu-Chan was on the plane from Haneda which had tail accident on takeoff in August during Obon season making it uncontrollable and crashed in the mountains. 4 survived long night at scans. Japan refused US offer to help immediately. Also made many reports of crash & follow-up.
FrankR
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
One of the dead in that aircraft was the Japanese singer (and I know I’ll get this wrong) Kiu Sakamoto who made the first American top 20 foreign language record, Sukiyaki.
Ken
From: Frank Rogers
Dated: September 3, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
The flight was headed southwestward from Tokyo, but because of tail damage it could not be controlled, so it went way off course and crashed on a Honshu mountain northwest from Yokota.
FrankR
From: Walt Christiansen
Dated: September 2, 2020
Subject: KAL 007
Kyu Sakamoto was not on KAL007. He died in a 747 plane crash that flew into a mountain in Japan. A total of 520 people died when the Japan airlines flight 123 from Tokyo to Osaka crashed.