Soviet fighter jets, tracking the big 747 into what they claimed were U.S.S.R. airspace fired two air-to-air missiles into the commercial airliner's fuselage, sending it down into the Sea of Japan.
Tensions had been high at the time between Soviet and U.S. air forces in the region. American reconnaissance aircraft had trolled the Soviets by flying over the Kurile Islands, a disputed stretch between the U.S.S.R and Japan. Consequently, the Soviets had begun to assert a broader swath of airspace as belonging to them.