5 Facts About The Alleged Attempted Airliner Shootdown That Was Kept Secret For 27 Years

While Finland is now a member of NATO, during the Cold War, it was forced by the USSR to become a natural country (in a process called ‘Finlandization’). In 2014, it came to light that a Finnair passenger jet had nearly been shot down by a missile in 1987. It’s now been over 100 years since Finnair’s first flight and, over that time, the company has had to operate during the Winter War, the Continuation War, and the constant threat of the USSR during the Cold War.

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Only revealed in 2014

The near-shoot down was secret for 27 years

The Finnair shooting incident was kept a secret for 27 years until co-captain Kaukianian stated that the Finnair pilots decided to come out and speak about the matter after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was tragically shot down over Ukraine on 17 July 2014. The pilots recounted they thought it was a weather rocket but only realized it was a missile when the aircraft reached 35,000 feet, and the rocket nearly hit the aircraft and exploded.

At the time, people in Finland were outraged that the incident had been kept a secret for so long. A Finnish newspaper stated in 2014, “A passenger jet flying over the Arctic Ocean narrowly avoided being shot down by what is claimed to be a Soviet missile, according to two co-pilots on board the long-haul flight in 1987. But the incident, revealed by the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, has only come to light now because the plane’s captain refused to submit a report, the crew members claim.”

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A Russo-Soviet history of shoot downs

Flight 007 is the most infamous Soviet shoot-down

The Soviet Union targeted a number of airlines over the years. Shooting incidents include Aero Kaleva in 1940 (a Finnish flight shot down after the Winter War and before the Soviet entry into WW2). Aeroflot Flight 902 in 1962 (a Soviet flight possibly shot down by accident), and Korean Air Lines Flight 902 (a Korean flight shot down after violating Soviet airspace – most passengers survived the emergency landing).

The worst were Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983 (Korean 747 shot down with a total loss of life) and MH-17 in 2014 (believed to have been shot down by Russian-aligned forces in Ukraine). Additionally, there was Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 shot down by Iran in 2020. While some of these aircraft unwittingly violated Soviet airspace, each has its own tale of why it happened.

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The pilots saw the rocket

The incident took place between 13:00 and 14:00 local time

While no official reports exist about the incident, the Finnish pilots claim the incident took place over the Edgeøya island of Svalbard near the North Pole between 13:00 and 14:00. Visibility was good. The pilots were able to watch the flight of the rock for over 30 seconds. When it reached the cruising altitude of the aircraft, it turned and went straight at the aircraft (the ability to turn suggests the rocket was a SAM).

The pilots believe the rocket had been locked onto the Finnair jet. However, the rocket exploded but did not hit the aircraft, and the pilots watched the hull of the missile fall down toward the sea. 60 to 80 seconds later, the aircraft came to the dust cloud left by the explosion.

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Motive and actor never proven

At 35,000 feet, it is clear the Finnair flight was targeted

While the missile is believed to have been fired by the Soviet Union (the missile came from the Soviet Union), no one knows who fired it or why. It is anyone’s guess why the missile was fired—perhaps the Soviets thought the aircraft was an American military aircraft, or perhaps they thought it had violated their airspace.

A good way to approach such shootdowns is to “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” In 2022, a rogue Russian pilot disobeyed orders and opened fire on a British AWACS aircraft in international waters over the Black Sea. That said, sometimes the motive is very much malice – one likely example is the bombing or shoot down of the business jet near Moscow that was carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin in August 2023 (he was the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner and had rebelled just two months prior).

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5

McDonnell Douglas DC-10

Around 70 KC-10s remain in service as Air Force tankers

The aircraft involved in the incident was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. The DC-10 is a trijet wide-body aircraft built as the successor to the DC-8 for long-range flights. American Airlines introduced it in 1971. The DC-10 remains in operational use by the US Air Force as the KC-10 Extender aerial tanker aircraft.

The DC-10 earned itself a terrible reputation for crashing. It is regarded as having a design flaw in the original cargo doors, which led to multiple incidents during its operation. The crash of DC-10 Turkish Airlines Flight 981 in 1974 was the deadliest crash in aviation history up to that point. In 1983, McDonnell Douglas announced the end of DC-10 production due to a lack of orders and other concerns.