Korean Air Flight 858 - History

History

On 12 November 1986, the two North Korean agents traveled from Pyongyang, North Korea, on an airliner, to Moscow, Russian SFSR. There, they left for Budapest, Hungary the following morning, where they stayed in the home of a North Korean agent for six days. On 18 November, the pair traveled to Vienna, Austria by automobile. After crossing the Austrian border, the guidance officer with whom they had stayed in Budapest gave the pair two forged Japanese passports. Posing as tourists staying in the Am Parkring Hotel in Vienna, the two purchased tickets from Austrian Airlines, for flights which would take them from Vienna to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, then on to Baghdad, Abu Dhabi, and finally Bahrain. They also purchased tickets from Abu Dhabi to Rome, Italy, which they would use to escape after planting the bomb on the KAL flight.

On 27 November, two guidance officers who had arrived in Yugoslavia by train from Vienna gave them the time bomb, a Panasonic transistor radio made in Japan, which contained explosives, a detonator and a bottle of liquid explosive intended to intensify the blast, disguised as a bottle of liquor. The next day, they left Belgrade for Saddam International Airport, Baghdad, on an Iraqi Airways flight. At Saddam, they waited three hours and 30 minutes for the arrival of KAL 858 — the target of their operation — which took off at around 11:30 p.m. The two bombers planted the improvised explosive device above their seats, 7B and 7C, and disembarked the aircraft at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

On the second leg of the flight, from Abu Dhabi to Thailand, KAL 858 was carrying 104 passengers and 11 crew members. At around 2:05 p.m. Korea Standard Time (KST), nine hours after the bomb was planted and towards the end of the flight, the bomb detonated and the aircraft exploded over the Andaman Sea (14°33′00″N 97°23′00″E / 14.55°N 97.3833°E / 14.55; 97.3833), killing all 115 on board. The pilot transmitted his final radio message shortly before the explosion: "We expect to arrive in Bangkok on time. Time and location normal." 113 of the people aboard were South Korean nationals, along with an Indian national and a Lebanese national. Many of the 113 South Korean nationals were young workers who were returning to their home country after working for several years in the construction industry in the Middle East. A South Korean diplomat, who worked at the embassy in Baghdad, and his wife, were also aboard the flight, though it is not known if they were the prime targets of the attack. Wreckage from the flight was washed up on a beach in Thailand. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were not located.

After the attack, the bombers attempted to fly from Abu Dhabi to Amman — the first leg of their planned escape route — but there were complications with airport authorities regarding their visas, and they were forced to fly to Bahrain, where they agreed they would travel to Rome. However, the bombers' passports were identified as forgeries at the airport in Bahrain. Realising that they would be taken into custody, they both immediately attempted to smoke cyanide-laced cigarettes to kill themselves. The male was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead, but the female suspect, 25-year-old Kim Hyon Hui, survived, after police grabbed the cigarette from her mouth.