Ireland favoured ‘minimalist’ sanctions on Soviets when they shot down plane

The Irish government opposed a call by then US president, Ronald Reagan, to suspend landing rights of the Soviet state airliner, Aeroflot, in response to the shooting down of a Korean civilian aircraft by the USSR in 1983 because of its financial impact on Shannon Airport.

All 269 passengers and crew on board the flight from New York to Seoul were killed when the Boeing 747 aircraft was struck by an air-to-air missile fired by the Soviet military on September 1st, 1983.

Confidential State papers show taoiseach Garret FitzGerald favoured sanctions of “a minimalist type”.

Ministers had been warned that a suspension of Aeroflot’s landing rights at Shannon would result in lost revenue of £200,000 per month for the State airport authority, Aer Rianta – most of which was “clear profit”.

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They were informed the monthly figure rose to £350,000 when revenue losses for other companies who derived benefit from Aeroflot’s refuelling operations at Shannon were included.

It was estimated that Aeroflot’s operations directly sustained 60 jobs at the airport.