[Poohbah]

the flight was from Alaska to Seoul Korea, it was only a little bit out of their way to get into soviet airspace. Somehow it got there, it was slightly off its planned path when shot down, could've been a mistake by those flying the plane or it could've been caused by soviet deception through electronic means.

Do you have any idea how inertial navigation works?

It doesn't use any outside electronic data sources. Instead, accelerometers in the aircraft measure its every movement.

In short, in order for the Soviets to be able to lure the aircraft off course by "electronic means," those "electronic means" would have to distort the Earth's gravity field. Ain't no way to do that--or, rather, if the Soviets WERE able to do that, we would've lost the Cold War rather blatantly...

The ICAO investigation found that a rather easy-to-make-error would put the wrong start location into the INS...and that would, in turn, cause the aircraft to fly the wrong direction, Garbage in, garbage out...

[Red Jones]

you got me, I don't know how those systems work, I just know I read in National Review an article and it said the soviets had the ability to 'trick' the plane into flying off-course. I guess NR is part of a big conspiracy to make people look stupid who read their magazine.

[A Little Bird]

KAL 007 should have been navigated by the Inertial Navigation System (INS). Indeed, up until 1993, questions related to KAL 007's deviation from its route have been focused on the INS's fuctioning or programming (intentional or unintentional). The International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) 1993 analysis of KAL 007's Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR, or one of the "black boxes") concluded that KAL 007's INS never captured the aircraft's autopilot. If it had, KAL 007 would have made turns (even though some very slight) at every "waypoint" inserted into the INS. (Every waypoint is, in effect, a turning point -- and for many of them a reporting point as well.) Instead of KAL 007 changing direction at waypoints, it followed a consistent (unchanging) track of 246 degrees (southwest). Why the INS had not captured the autopilot, thus allowing the aircraft to remain in the Magnetic Heading mode, is discussed in Frequently Asked Question #3 on the International Committee for the Rescue of KAL 007 Survivors, Inc's web site - www.rescue007.org. Rescue 007: The Untold Story of KAL 007 and its Survivors by Bert Schlossberg, Xlibris, also deals with KAL 007's deviation from "desired track." The book is available from xlibris.com.