SOVIET UNION: The Mystery of Flight 902

Why did a South Korean jet make a 180° turn over the Arctic?

Everything was normal at the start of Korean Air Lines Flight 902, which left Paris one afternoon last week on the polar route to Seoul with 110 passengers and crew members aboard. Under a veteran pilot, Captain Kim Chang Kyu, 46, the Boeing 707 followed a normal course over the North Sea and Greenland and headed toward Canada's Ellesmere Island on its 8,455-mile run. But then, about 3½ hours away from a refueling stop at Anchorage, Alaska, Captain Kim did something extraordinary: he made a 180° turn back...

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