Editing Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (section)

====Post-attack flight====
At the time of the attack, the plane had been cruising at an altitude of about {{convert|35000|ft|m}}. Tapes recovered from the airliner's [[cockpit voice recorder]] indicate that the crew was unaware that they were off course and [[Prohibited airspace|violating Soviet airspace]]. Immediately after missile detonation, the airliner began a 113-second arc upward because of a damaged crossover cable between the left inboard and right outboard elevators.<ref name="ICAO93-55">ICAO '93, p. 55</ref>

At 18:26:46&nbsp;UTC (03:26 [[Time in Japan|Japan Time]]; 06:26 Sakhalin time),<ref name="ICAO93-54">ICAO '93, p. 54</ref> at the apex of the arc at altitude {{convert|38250|ft|m}},<ref name="ICAO93-55" /> the autopilot disengaged (this was either done by the pilots, or it disengaged automatically). Now being controlled manually, the plane began to descend to {{convert|35000|ft|m}}. From 18:27:01 until 18:27:09, the flight crew reported to the Tokyo Area Control Center informing that KAL&nbsp;007 would "descend to 10,000" [feet; 3,000{{nbsp}}m]. At 18:27:20, ICAO graphing of Digital Flight Data Recorder tapes showed that after a descent phase and a 10-second "nose-up", KAL&nbsp;007 was leveled out at pre-missile detonation altitude of {{convert|35000|ft|m|abbr=on}}, forward acceleration was back to pre-missile detonation rate of zero acceleration, and airspeed had returned to pre-detonation velocity.

[[Aircraft principal axes|Yaw]] oscillations, beginning at the time of missile detonation, continued decreasingly until the end of the 1-minute 44-second section of the tape. The Boeing did not break up, explode, or plummet immediately after the attack; it continued its gradual descent for four minutes, then leveled off at {{convert|16,424|ft|m|abbr=on}} (18:30–18:31&nbsp;UTC), rather than continuing to descend to {{convert|10,000|ft|m|abbr=on}} as previously reported to Tokyo Area Control Center. It continued at this altitude for almost five more minutes (18:35&nbsp;UTC).

The last [[cockpit voice recorder]] entry occurred at 18:27:46 while in this phase of the descent. At 18:28&nbsp;UTC, the aircraft was reported turning to the north.<ref name="ICAO93-132">ICAO '93, Information Paper No. 1, p. 132</ref> ICAO analysis concluded that the flight crew "retained limited control" of the aircraft.<ref>ICAO '93, sect. 3.38, p. 61</ref> However, this lasted for only five minutes. The crew then lost all control. The aircraft began to descend rapidly in spirals over [[Moneron Island]] for {{convert|2.6|mi|km}}. The aircraft then broke apart in mid-air and crashed into the ocean, just off the west coast of [[Sakhalin|Sakhalin Island]]. All 269 people on board were killed.<ref group="note">The last plotted radar position of the target was 18:35 hours at 5,000&nbsp;meters." (ICAO '93, p. 53, para. 2.15.8)</ref> The aircraft was last seen visually by Osipovich, "somehow descending slowly" over Moneron Island. The aircraft disappeared off long-range military radar at [[Wakkanai, Hokkaidō|Wakkanai]], Japan, at a height of {{convert|1000|ft|m}}.<ref>Johnson, p. 30</ref>

KAL 007 was probably attacked in international airspace, with a 1993 Russian report listing the location of the missile firing outside its territory at {{Coord|46|46|27|N|141|32|48|E |type:event|name=KAL007}},<ref name="Fischer" /><ref>Oberg, ''KAL 007: The Real Story''</ref> although the intercepting pilot stated otherwise in a subsequent interview. Initial reports that the airliner had been forced to land on Sakhalin were soon proven false{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}. One of these reports conveyed via phone by Orville Brockman, the Washington office spokesman of the [[Federal Aviation Administration]], to the press secretary of Larry McDonald, was that the FAA in Tokyo had been informed by the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau that "Japanese self-defense force radar confirms that the Hokkaido radar followed Air Korea to a landing in Soviet territory on the island of Sakhalinska and it is confirmed by the manifest that Congressman McDonald is on board".<ref>"KAL&nbsp;007: Cover-Up", David Pearson, ''Summit Press'', N.Y., 1987, p. 122</ref>

A Japanese fisherman aboard ''58th Chidori Maru'' later reported to the [[Japan Coast Guard|Japanese Maritime Safety Agency]] (this report was cited by ICAO analysis) that he had heard a plane at low altitude, but had not seen it. Then he heard "a loud sound followed by a bright flash of light on the horizon, then another dull sound and a less intense flash of light on the horizon"<ref>ICAO '93, 1.2.1, p. 5</ref> and smelled aviation fuel.<ref>Daniloff, p. 300</ref>