Larry McDonald

Um, n- not in terms of the attrition and, you know, the, the lives lost, but it was incredibly shocking to people.

Um, on board the aircraft was, uh, Larry McDonald, the US congressman, who also was the chairman of the John Birch Society-

Yep

... and, uh, one of the founders-

The Soviet Union, apparently believing it was a US spy plane, scrambled two fighter jets, which attacked the plane with air-to-air missiles.

The flight crashed into the sea, killing all 269 people aboard, one of whom was US Representative Larry McDonald of Georgia.

The incident sparked international outrage and a slew of conspiracy theories, some of which still persist today.

The Soviet Union did not help the matter by being incredibly secretive about the incident, at first not even admitting that it had happened and not revealing whether it had found the wreckage or flight data recorders.

After many SPK members fled West Germany, they were portrayed as dangerous and moving around Europe with impunity.

In 1979, Larry McDonald, a U.S. congressman from Georgia, characterized SPK members as having, quote, accumulated funds, weapons, and false documents, adding that, quote, forgery of driver's licenses, passports, and the like was made a specialty.

In 1991, psychologist Jacob Sundberg accused former SPK members who fled to Sweden of poisoning quite a few middle-class Swedish intellectuals, especially young women, through the spreading of alleged West German terrorist doctrines.

Sundberg blamed an attempted kidnapping of a Swedish official in 1977 on the spread of SPK's logic to Swedish youth, decrying the, quote, destruction of social infrastructure and the lack of family control in society characterized by a general leftist atmosphere.

Because he wants to go to war with Cuba and he wants to attack Castro-isma, right?

Yeah.

No, I mean, it's like if you think about, for example, like juxtaposing like what I just read with like what I read from health communism, like the 1979 statement from Larry McDonald, who's like a Georgia congressman saying, you know, SBK has accumulated funds.

They've accumulated weapons and false documents and forgery and they're going across borders.

The 747 departed Anchorage at 13 minutes past midnight on September 1st.

269 people aboard, among them United States Congressman Lawrence McDonald of Georgia, a retired physician, a combat veteran.

He was heading to Seoul for ceremonies marking the 30th anniversary of the United States-Korea Mutual Defense Treaty.

The sky was clear.