This article is from page 21 of the 2014-01-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 21 JPG
SHANNON Airport became the unlikely battleground for the Soviet Union and America in 1983 as the Irish Government yielded to pressure from America to ban Aeroflot civilian flight from landing at the airport.
Records released last week under the 30-year-rule show that then US president Ronald Reagan sent a direct request to Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald (FG) to ban Aeroflot stopovers in Shannon.
The blanket ban was ordered after the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Line Flight 007 on September 1, 1983, near Sakhalin island in the Sea of Japan after it strayed into Russian air space.
All 269 passengers and crew, including US congressman Larry McDonald, were killed in the attack. In a strongly-worded two-page letter, Mr Reagan tried to rally international opposition to the Soviets and called for co-operation and support among friends.
“The Soviet action represents a challenge to the international com- munity. It would be a tragedy if we do not collectively respond in a resolute and clear manner to this action,” he wrote.
According to reports, the world was on the verge of a nuclear World War Three after a Russian army early warning missile detection system gave a false alarm that the US had launched a strike.
Mr FitzGerald confirmed Aeroflot would be banned from Shannon on September 16, 1983, 10 days before the fault in the Oko missile detection system in Moscow.
Irish and US officials had already had private talks on the issue and considered a ban should initially be 60-90 days or until “the Soviet Union responds to our very real concerns”.
Dr FitzGerald wrote a four-page letter back to Mr Reagan to confirm that Aeroflot would not be allowed to pick up or set down passengers at Shannon Airport on flights destined for Moscow.
He also said the Government had deferred a decision on an application by Aeroflot for landing rights at Shannon for flights coming and going from Lima in Peru and Havana in Cuba.