Incident

After the September 11 attacks, a call went out for all planes to return to their airports of origin (or if they didn't have enough fuel, to land in Canadian airspace). 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. When the pilot sent his text message, the text messaging service company, Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated (ARINC) noticed the "HJK" code. ARINC officials, worried that the Korean pilots might be sending a coded message for help, notified North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). NORAD, taking no chances, scrambled two F-15 jets from the Elmendorf Air Force Base to intercept the 747, with Alaska traffic control asking the pilots coded questions. Passenger pilots are trained to answer these questions in a coded way if hijacked.

The Korean pilots, instead of reassuring controllers, declared themselves hijacked by changing their transponder signal to the four-digit universal code for hijacked, 7500. Worried that a possible hijacked plane might strike a target in Alaska, Senator Ted Stevens ordered evacuations of large hotels and government buildings in Anchorage. At nearby Valdez, 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 Korean plane to be shot down from the sky before it could attack a target in Alaska.

With NORAD telling Anchorage air traffic control that it would shoot down the airliner if it came near any potential targets, the air control told Flight 85 to avoid all population centers and head out of the country to Whitehorse, Canada. NORAD promptly called Canadian authorities seeking the go-ahead to shoot the plane down over Canadian soil.