The site where the story is hosted at is down, so I'll copy it's entirety into here. Original Story: http://maltastar.com/pages/msfullart.asp?an=15214 Source: http://digg.com/world_news/14_years_ago_The_man_who_saved_millions_of_American_lives
Actually, when the Korean plane was in Soviet territory, the Soviet fighter jet did not only just try to talk to the other pilot, but he made hand gestures telling him to land and then later that he would open fire. Also, there was only one body found in the wreckage. Source: My dad, he was in the Red Army at the time this happened. Here's a question: If a Soviet plane, with civilians, flew over the US on accident and didn't respond, how would the US respond?
Yes, I remember that guy. Time Magazine rewarded him with some prize like Man of the Year or something.
*yanks reward from Screeches hands* "Here you go, Mr. Petrov, this 1983 Man of the Year award belongs to you."
Wow, thanks for the story. I never heard about this till now. I guess High Schools fail at teaching relevant history and all I studied in college was the Industrial Revelation. Good read tho, even for us who aren't a history buff. Don't you love our country?
One of my history teachers (who was also my neighbor) told me about this guy several years ago. Major props. I was actually going to post it the next time I remembered his name.
No you location still says Leningrad, USSR, correctly it should be Russia. And amazing example of judgement there, why the **** was the Kremlin saying that he risked millions of Russian lives? Even if the missile attacks were real and he did launch, those lives would still have been lost.
And that's why nuclear war is just retarded. The best you can hope for (well, back then anyway), is to take everyone else on the planet down with you. The only way to win is not to play
I wonder how reliable a nuclear stalemate actually is. You'd have do be bloody stupid to launch a full-out nuclear attack on someone, knowing that they'd instantly do the same to you. Assuming retarded computer errors like that don't happen any more, would anyone actually start a nuclear holocaust? Or if attacks were launched, would the other side actually respond, knowing that they wouldn't be saving any of their own people?
Oh yeah, I remeber seeing a documentary about the plane being shot down. I saw the families of those who were killed mourn the dead, and the like. Evil ****ing soviets. Anyway, that man needs to get a medal/lots of moneh. And it just goes to show that compouters aren't completely reliable, after all.
That's 24 years not 14. Have heard this before, pretty awesome story, pity the man doesn't get the recognition he deserves. The man on wiki.
Nice, hadn't heard about this. ****ing sunlight and computers eh, two of the things we rely on most today and they could have been the end of us. I might never have been born D: (depending on how fast it escelated) The way the guy was shunned by his own government kind of reminds me of the security guard who discovered the Watergate scandal. Basically a hero and he was never really recognised, and lived in poverty for the rest of his life.
