on september 1st, 1983, an airlines flight. as it headed from alaska west toward its final destination, that plane drifted into soviet airspace and a soviet fighter jet tracked the airliner as it headed back out toward international airspace. but before it could get there, that soviet fighter fired at the 747 with two missiles. the jet was hit. the jet fell into the sea of japan. all 269 people on board including a u.s. congressman from georgia were killed. and the soviets were totally unrepentant about that. they claimed that that korean civilian jet liner was actually an intruder spy plane into the soviet union. it wasn't a commercial plane. it certainly wasn't an asian one. it was a spy plane violating airspace to provoke the soviets or steal soviet secrets or both. nine days after that plane was shot down, nbc nightly news ran a remarkable lead story about those soviet claims that it was a spy plane including footage of