Korean Air Flight 85

On September 11, 2001, Korean Air Flight 85, was a Korean Air flight en route to Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska ordered to land in Whitehorse, Canada because controllers thought it was hijacked. It was thought to be hijacked because the airline received a text message with "HJK" and the pilots did not say "disregard we are not 7500/hijacked" when ordered to squawk 7500.^[2]

The plane was considered by authorities to be a potential hijacked aircraft and was authorized by American officials and the Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to be shot down.^[3] The pilots of the civil airliner cooperated and the 747 was forced by American F-15 military jets to land in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.

Incident

After the September 11 attacks, a call went out for all planes to return to their airports of origin (or if they did not have enough fuel, to land in Canadian territory). While discussing the day's events with the Korean Air office, the pilot of Flight 85 included the letters "HJK" (the code for "hijacked") in an airline text message.^[1] When the pilot sent his message, the text messaging service company, Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated (ARINC) noticed the "HJK" code.^[1] ARINC officials, worried that the South Korean pilots might be sending a coded message for help, notified North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Taking no chances, NORAD scrambled F-15 jets from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage to intercept the 747, with Alaska air traffic control (ATC) asking the pilots coded questions. Civil airline pilots are trained to answer these questions in a coded way if hijacked.

ATC instructed the flight to change its transponder code to 7500, the universal signal for hijack, expecting that, if they had not been hijacked, the pilots would respond to that effect. Instead, they simply complied with the instruction, which ATC took as confirmation that the flight had indeed been hijacked.^[2][4] Worried that a possible hijacked plane might strike a target in Alaska, Governor Tony Knowles ordered the evacuation of large hotels and government buildings in Anchorage. At nearby Valdez, (also in Alaska), the U.S. Coast Guard ordered all tankers filling up with oil to head out to sea. Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, who was in charge of the NORAD planes that scrambled to shadow Flight 85, told reporters in 2001 that he was prepared to order the South Korean airplane to be shot down before it could attack a target in Alaska.^[1]

With NORAD telling Anchorage ATC that it would shoot down the airliner if it came near any potential targets, these controllers informed Flight 85 to avoid all population centers and head out of the country to Whitehorse, Yukon. NORAD promptly called Canadian authorities seeking the go-ahead to shoot the plane down over Canada:

"I said, 'Yes, if you think they are terrorists, you call me again but be ready to shoot them down.' So I authorized it in principle, It's kind of scary that... [there is] this plane with hundreds of people and you have to call a decision like that.... But you prepare yourself for that. I thought about it -- you know that you will have to make decisions at times that will [be] upsetting you for the rest of your life".

—2001 Prime Minister Jean Chrétien^[3]

Ninety minutes after the South Korean pilots changed their transponder signal to the 7500 hijacked code, the plane landed safely in Whitehorse. Canadian officials evacuated all schools and large buildings before the plane landed.^[5] On the tarmac, Flight 85 was greeted by armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers who, after interrogating the pilots, learned the whole ordeal was caused by a translation error.^[5] The South Korean pilot stated that he had been ordered by Air Traffic Control to change the transponder signal and Air Traffic Control confirmed having done so.^[2]

Korean Air still uses Flight 85 on its Seoul-Incheon to New York-JFK route. However, the flight no longer stops in Anchorage and its normal equipment is now the Airbus A380.

Timeline of events

September 11, 2001

• Flight 85 takes off from Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea.
• 8:46:40 a.m. (Eastern Time Zone (ET)) - American Airlines Flight 11 is flown into the World Trade Center's North Tower
• 9:03:11 a.m. (ET) - United Airlines Flight 175 hits the World Trade Center's South Tower^[6][7]
• 9:37 a.m. (ET) - American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon^[8]
• 9:59:04 a.m. (ET) - The South Tower collapses.
• 10:03:11 a.m. (ET) - United Airlines Flight 93, whose ultimate target was thought to be either the United States Capitol or the White House, crashes near Shanksville, Pennsylvania^[9]
• 10:10 a.m. (ET) - The portion of the Pentagon wall hit by American Airlines Flight 77 collapses.
• 10:28 a.m. (ET) - The North Tower collapses.
• 11:08 a.m. (ET) The pilot of Flight 85 includes the letters "HJK," a code for hijacked, in an airline text message
• 12:00 p.m. (ET) - ARINC officials notify NORAD about the use of the hijack code
• 1:00 p.m. (ET) - Jets are scrambled from Elmendorf Air Force Base to shadow the plane
• 1:24 p.m. (ET) - The Korean pilots change their transponder signal to the four-digit universal code for hijacked — 7500^[4]
• 1-2:45 p.m. (ET) - Alerted that a possible hijacked plane might strike a target in Alaska, Governor Tony Knowles orders the evacuation of potential targets
• 2:54 p.m. (ET) - Flight 85 lands safely in Whitehorse and is met by armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers who determine that the plane was not hijacked

Operation Yellow Ribbon

Operation Yellow Ribbon was the operation that Transport Canada created to handle the diversion of civilian airline flights following the September 11 attacks in 2001. The operation started after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all aircraft across the United States and re-routed incoming international flights to airports in Canada. During the operation, departing aircraft, with the exception of police, military, and humanitarian flights were canceled, marking the first time that Canada shut down its airspace. As a result of Operation Yellow Ribbon, 255 aircraft were diverted to 17 different airports across the country.

References