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It was earlier believed that the aircraft was forced to land when Russian fighters fired warning shots, but in fact Soviet authorities gave the order to shoot the passenger jet down. The aircraft was able to avoid annihilation by banking just as the Su-15 was firing its missiles.
Russia's state-owned 1TV revealed the new facts in a documentary on the incident based on testimony from Vladimir Dmitriyev, then-commander of the Soviet PVO (air defense) unit in Murmansk, fighter pilot Anatoli Kerepov and others who took part in bringing down the Korean airliner.
Dmitriyev said he scrambled a fighter after he realized Soviet airspace had been violated. When the fighter pilot confirmed the plane as a civilian airliner, Dmitriyev several times ordered the pilot to instruct the KAL aircraft to land, in accordance with international practice. But after the fighter pilot reported no response from the KAL aircraft, he ordered it shot down.
SAM missile batteries and the jet fighter were ordered to attack but failed because the KAL aircraft was flying at low altitude. The Su-15 then launched a heat-seeking missile, which missed its target and exploded in midair, severely damaging the airliner's wing, he said. The KAL plane immediately performed an emergency landing on Imandra Lake, 200 miles south of Murmansk. The program also said when the KAL plane switched direction for Finland in a bid to escape, Soviet authorities moved to quickly shoot it down.
Vladimir Vasiliev of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies said the KAL 707's violation of Soviet airspace was very similar to one that would take place in 1983, when KAL 007 was shot down over Sakhalin Island. He said they were probably spy missions used by the U.S. to test Soviet air defense and command capabilities.
KAL 707 left Paris on April 21, 1978 and entered Soviet airspace on its way to Alaska. Two were killed and 13 wounded in the incident, and the survivors returned to Korea four days later.