Korean Air Lines Flight 007 , also known as KAL 007 , was a Korean Air Lines civilian airliner shot down by Soviet jet interceptors on September 1, 1983 just west of Sakhalin island. 269 passengers and crew, were aboard, including the only sitting U.S. congressman reported to have been killed by the Soviets during the Cold War, US congressman from Georgia Lawrence McDonald. There were 22 children under the age of 12 years aboard, the youngest being 8 months old. There were no known survivors.
The aircraft had entered into Soviet airspace. The Soviet Union stated it did not believe the aircraft was civilian and it was a deliberate provocation by the United States, the purpose being to test its military response capabilities, repeating the incursion of Korean Air Flight 902, also shot down by Soviet aircraft over the Kola Peninsula in 1978.
The incident attracted a storm of protest from across the world, particularly from the United States.