While approaching the Kamchatka peninsula, 6 MiG-23 fighters were scrambled. Because a US Boeing RC-135 intelligence plane was flying in the area East off Kamchatka, the Soviet defense forces probably thought the B747 radar echo to be the RC-135. KAL 007 left Russian airspace over the Okhostk Sea and the fighters returned to their base. Passing abeam the Nippi beacon (4 hours after take-off), the aircraft was 185 miles off course and headed for Sakhalin.

Two Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 fighters were scrambled from the Dolinsk-Sokol Airbase at 17:42 UTC and 17:54 respectively. At 18:16h UTC flight 007 re-entered Soviet airspace. At 18:22h the Soviet command ordered destruction of the target (for the 2nd time). Two air-to-air missiles were launched by one of the fighters and struck the Boeing at 18:26h. Cabin pressure was lost and the aircraft suffered control problems, causing the Boeing to spiral down and crash into the sea.

One of many perplexing details that raise questions about what really happened to KAL 007 after the attack is that the jetliner remained airborne for at least 12 minutes. During a press briefing on the morning of September 1, 1983, Secretary of State George Shultz told reporters: "At 1826 hours the Soviet pilot reported that he fired a missile and the target was destroyed. At 1830 hours the Korean aircraft was reported by radar at 5,000 meters [16,400 feet]. At 1838 hours the Korean plane disappeared from the radar screen."

To date, no one has adequately explained how a jetliner supposedly blown up and hurtling out of control toward the sea would take at least 12 minutes to fall 35,000 feet.

Never has an American trial produced such an impressive set of key players:

the defendant-- Aaron Burr, founding father, Vice President, and slayer of Alexander Hamilton in their famous duel three years earlier;

the trial judge--John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (and the most important justice in history);

the force behind the prosecution--Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and president of the United States;

defense attorneys--Edmund Randolph and Luther Martin, both delegates to the Constitutional Convention and among the most prominent men of the day; prosecutors-- Charles Lee, former Attorney General, and William Wirt, future presidential candidate.

The Treason Trial of Aaron Burr

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it. ~Franklin P. Jones