Civil Aviation Hot Line for North Pacific Will Open Today

The United States, Japan and the Soviet Union will inaugurate a new system today to ensure safe civil aviation in the North Pacific, nearly three years after a Soviet interceptor plane shot down an off-course South Korean jetliner.

The key component, a 24-hour telephone hot line among the air traffic control centers in Anchorage, Tokyo and the Siberian city of Khabarovsk, will provide swift response to airliners in trouble in the region.

A spokesman for Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau said the chiefs of the three centers will inaugurate the telephone link this morning.

The system is based on an agreement reached among the three nations last year to prevent another downing of a civilian aircraft.

On Sept. 1, 1983, a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 on a flight from New York to Seoul flew far into Soviet airspace near Sakhalin Island, the site of sensitive military installations. A Soviet fighter plane shot the jumbo jet down, killing all 269 people aboard.

Moscow charged that the plane, KAL Flight 007, was on a spy mission, but South Korea denied it. Aviation officials believe the plane strayed into Soviet airspace after a navigational error.

Under the agreement, officials said, U.S., Soviet and Japanese controllers will have instant communication in English when an airliner strays off course, is unable to determine its position or develops any other emergency.