The Man Who Stopped WWIII
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Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to redacted, declassified mysteries early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. In the early hours of September 1, 1983, Korean Airlines Captain Chung Bae Young guided his Boeing 747 through the vast darkness over the North Pacific Ocean. Bae Young had been flying this exact route for five years. This flight, number 007, was a 4,000-mile, eight-hour route from Anchorage, Alaska to Seoul, South Korea. Captain Bae Young, a former Korean Air Force pilot, brought years of experience to the job. Along with the plane's advanced navigation system and his first-rate crew, he could fly to Seoul in his sleep. Technically, he could sleep, since the autopilot did much of the flying, as it was right now. The plane held 246 passengers and 23 crew members. Most of the passengers were Koreans heading home. There were also a few dozen US citizens and a handful of people from Japan, Taiwan, and other countries.
The flight was so routine that the captain and his first officer were casually chatting with the crew of another plane a few minutes behind them. The conversation drifted to upcoming plans, like taking time off to enjoy the changing autumn leaves. At about 3.25 a.m. local time, the plane began approaching Sakhalin Island in the North Pacific Ocean. In the warm cocoon of the cockpit, Byung and his crew were unaware that they were being closely watched. Their false sense of comfort was about to come to a horrifying end. They had no idea that the plane had gone completely off course and was actually illegally entering Soviet airspace in a sensitive region of the Russian Far East. Suddenly, the plane shook violently. Oxygen masks dropped.
Chaos erupted in the cabin as pressurized air inside began rushing out. as if someone had ripped open a door. Captain Bayoung felt the temperature drop as alarms blared in the cockpit. The flight engineer checked his instruments and confirmed that all four engines were functioning normally. Whatever had exploded, it wasn't an engine. Captain Bayoung's mind raced. The plane was out of control. The first officer radioed Tokyo Air Traffic Control, informing them that they were experiencing a rapid decompression. Captain Bae Young tried to maneuver the plane to a lower altitude where there would be less damage from decompression, but he couldn't gain control of the aircraft that he had piloted so many times before.
He heard the terrified screams of passengers, and there was nothing he could do. For the next six minutes, the plane fell through the darkness, spiraling down 35,000 feet and then crashing into the Sea of Japan. No one survived. What happened to flight 007 would soon trigger a chain of events, pushing the world to the brink of World War III.
From Ballant Studios in Wondery, I'm Luke LaManna, and this is Redacted Declassified Mysteries, where each week we shine a light on the shadowy corners of espionage, covert operations, and misinformation to reveal the dark secrets our governments try to hide. This episode is called The Man Who Stopped World War III.
In the early 1980s, the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union had reached a fever pitch. Tensions between the two superpowers fueled an escalating arms race, aiming a total of 18,400 nuclear warheads at each other. America's president, Ronald Reagan, was a hardline anti-communist, openly referring to the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire. The Soviets were led by Yuri Andropov, a dedicated communist who harbored a deep distrust of the United States. And in this powder keg of a situation, the world was about to face a moment that could have turned the Cold War hot and possibly wiped out humanity with the push of a button. But one man would end up saving the planet from nuclear disaster.
He would do something unthinkable in military circles, ignore a direct order to launch weapons. He was a Russian officer named Stanislav Petrov. As a Marine, I can tell you that following orders is drilled into us from day one. It's more than protocol. It's a fundamental principle of military service.
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