A brawl broke out late last week after a police chief dressed in street clothes tried to arrest a high school girl who allegedly was causing trouble amid a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and now some residents in the southeastern Pennsylvania borough of Quakertown want the chief to resign.The Bucks County Courier Times said a probable cause affidavit provides the first official police account of what led to the arrest of five Quakertown High School students.'Everybody was confused because nobody knew it was a policeman. He was in regular clothes. We were just like, "Why is the man attacking us?"'At least 35 students participated in the Friday walkout to protest ICE, the Courier Times said, citing the affidavit.Quakertown police had been monitoring the protest “from a safe distance” and assisting with road closures after students left the high school campus and headed into the downtown business district, the paper said.More from the Courier Times:Early in the protest Friday police allege they noticed a large group of protesters move into the road in the 100 block of East Broad Street, and a girl kicked a white pickup truck on the passenger side several times and hit the side mirror with her hand, the affidavit said.Protesters also threw “ice balls” at vehicles, stood on public benches, and police approached the group and requested they protest respectfully, and keep the sidewalk clear, the affidavit said.In a statement issued Friday, Quakertown police alleged student protesters threw snowballs at vehicles, kicked cars, and “damaged property such as tearing a side mirror from a car.”The police statement also said that additional officers were called to the scene when confrontations with students escalated “and some individuals assaulted officers.”However, the paper said witnesses and protesters alleged that motorists followed the students and revved their engines, blew exhaust fumes at them, and yelled taunts at the students.The Courier Times, citing the affidavit, said students who continued walking toward Front Street were yelling obscenities “at the officers and in general."RELATED: Praise rolls in for high school suspending hundreds of students over anti-ICE walkout: 'Adults are taking charge' Police said a 15-year-old female protester was seen "numerous times" walking in the road, including in front of moving vehicles and blocking traffic, and she was warned to stay on the sidewalk, the paper reported.An officer allegedly ordered the girl to come across the street to be detained, and when she started to walk away from him, the officer grabbed her arm, the Courier Times said, citing the affidavit.With that, other teen protesters confronted the officer and pulled the girl away, which allowed her to slip into the crowd, the paper said, citing the affidavit.The officer radioed for assistance, the affidavit said, after which Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree, 72, and a sergeant arrived at the scene. The officer pointed to the girl he was trying to detain, and McElree allegedly attempted to arrest her — but a boy was pulling her away, the affidavit added.More from the Courier Times:After McElree grabbed the boy, he pulled away and struck the chief in the head with his cell phone multiple times, the affidavit said.The boy was eventually taken to the ground and placed in custody after he intervened again attempting to keep McElree away from the 15-year-old girl, according to the document.Multiple teens encircled McElree and began to punch and hit him including the 15-year-old girl that police were originally attempting to detain, the affidavit said.The paper, citing the affidavit, added that a sergeant saw another teen boy dressed in black come up behind McElree and hit him three times on the right side of his face and rib area. With that, the sergeant grabbed the teen, took him down, and placed him in handcuffs, the Courier Times said.RELATED: Juvenile hit by car at student anti-ICE protest in Florida Another police officer saw a girl hit McElree in the head with her backpack while the chief was on the ground grappling with a female protester, the paper said, citing the affidavit.What's more, a detective who responded to the scene allegedly saw a girl punch McElree in the head, after which the detective caught the girl and placed her on the sidewalk, where she allegedly kicked him several times while being handcuffed, the Courier Times said.The girl whom police originally wanted to detain was taken into custody, the paper said, adding that her attorney, Ettore "Ed" Angelo, on Tuesday denied his client had any physical contact with McElree.In all, five students were arrested and taken to juvenile detention.Three of them were released Tuesday, the Courier Times said, adding that the status of the remaining two is unknown, and the Bucks County District Attorney's Office has released no information as of Tuesday. The DA's office on Thursday did not immediately respond to Blaze News' question regarding how many students have been released.Authorities have not released their names, ages, and charges since they're juveniles, but the paper said it confirmed that at least two of the students face felony aggravated assault charges.RELATED: Video shows brawl after high school walkout protester allegedly hit pro-ICE man — and the man is charged with child abuse The Courier Times, citing the affidavit, said McElree was treated at a hospital for nonspecific injuries. The paper added that his face was covered in blood as he left the scene; however, in a cellphone video posted to social media he's heard telling an officer that he was "fine."Since the melee, McElree has been facing increasing backlash, including calls for him to resign. One of the issues is that the chief was not in uniform and allegedly did not identify himself as a police officer, the Courier Times said.Ashley Orellana, a Quakertown High School senior and friend of one of the arrested students, told WPVI-TV that "everybody was confused because nobody knew it was a policeman. He was in regular clothes. We were just like, 'Why is the man attacking us?'"Orellana attended a hearing Tuesday to support one of the defendants, the station said, adding that Robert McMillion, who witnessed his younger sister's arrest, also was in attendance."The chief, the unmarked man, he just started attacking us first, and something should be happening to him instead of the kids," McMillion told WPVI.At a borough council meeting Monday night, parents and community members called for McElree to resign or be fired, the station said.RELATED: Girl says she fought 'old,' 'racist' man with MAGA hat at ICE protest — and excuses fellow teen brawlers Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania alleged that McElree violated his commitment to "serve and protect" his community amid the incident, WHYY-TV reported."By all accounts, including abundant video evidence, there were no issues at the demonstration until Quakertown police arrived and incited violence," Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, told the station in a statement.Walczak added to WHYY that "the police should have been there to facilitate the demonstration, ensuring that the students could safely exercise their rights to assemble and speak out freely as guaranteed by our Constitution. They failed. In abandoning his job and his mission on Friday afternoon, Chief McElree effectively was acting as a counter-protester, albeit one with the ability to arrest people. Quakertown deserves better."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

During the late 1970s, a number of young girls went missing across Peru. At first, the disappearances went largely unnoticed, as many of the girls were street children or members of Indigenous tribes. But one day, a group of Ayachucos people witnessed the near kidnapping of a 9-year-old girl and stopped her would-be abductor, a man named Pedro Lopez. Rather than turning Lopez over to the police, however, the tribe members beat him, stripped him of his clothes, and started to bury him alive, presumably so that he could die a slow, agonizing death. Lopez likely would have perished, if not for an American missionary who happened upon the scene and convinced the tribespeople to report Lopez to the police. Hoberman Publishing/Alamy Stock PhotoSerial killer Pedro Lopez, also known as the “Monster of the Andes.” However, local authorities never took Pedro Lopez into custody. Instead, he was simply expelled from the country — free to abduct more girls off the streets in other South American countries, and free, as it would later be revealed, to brutally rape and murder as many as 300 children. But even though Lopez was later captured and charged for his crimes in Ecuador in 1980, he was sentenced to just 16 years in prison. Shockingly, he was released early in 1994 for “good behavior” before he was arrested yet again as an illegal immigrant. Then, he was deported back to his home country of Colombia, where he was held in a psychiatric hospital. Surprisingly, Pedro Lopez was eventually declared sane and was released again in 1998 — and the last time he was ever seen was in 1999. It wasn’t long before he was suspected of more murders, but to this day, no one has been able to track down the elusive “Monster of the Andes” again. The Tumultuous Early Life Of Pedro Lopez Pedro Lopez was born on October 8, 1948 in Santa Isabel, Colombia. His father died about six months before he was born, a member of a right-wing party who was killed during La Violencia, a 10-year civil war between the country’s Conservatives and Liberals that lasted from 1948 to 1958. According to Britannica, La Violencia claimed more than 200,000 lives. The conflict was especially violent under the reign of Laureano Gómez, a fascist who sought to bring the country under his authoritarian rule, only to collapse under his own power when he was brought down by a military coup. The conflict continued to have a lasting impact even after the fighting slowed, affecting all areas of society, including the economy. As all of this was unfolding, Pedro Lopez, the seventh of 13 children, grew up in poverty and chaos. Despite this, Lopez was actually a rather kind and polite child who dreamed of becoming a teacher. He later said, however, that his mother was abusive toward him. He also said that his mother was a sex worker who was frequently abused by her clients. Colombia PolicePedro Lopez in 1998, upon his release from a psychiatric hospital. There are varying accounts as to why Lopez left his home as a young child. Some claim that his mother kicked him out at the age of eight after she caught him fondling one of his sisters. Others say that he simply ran away. In any case, Lopez eventually found his way to Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá, where he lived on the streets among other homeless children. Like many unhoused youths in the area, Lopez joined a gang and got involved with drugs. At one point, Lopez said a seemingly kind stranger offered him a place to stay for the night, and then sexually assaulted him. When he was 10 years old, Lopez met an elderly couple who offered to give him a home and enrolled him at a school for orphaned children. Unfortunately, Lopez’s chance at a better life was once again destroyed when, at age 12, he was molested by one of the school’s teachers. He promptly ran away from the school and went back to living on the streets. By this point, Lopez was broken, yet hardened, and he began to speak often of getting revenge for the pain that he had suffered as a child. Then, in 1969, Pedro Lopez was arrested for auto theft and sentenced to seven years in prison. During his imprisonment, he was once again sexually assaulted, this time by several other inmates. Soon after, Lopez slit his attackers’ throats with a makeshift knife. He was reportedly sentenced to additional time behind bars — about two years — for the killings. Pedro Lopez’s Brutal Murder Spree Begins Upon his release from prison in 1978, Pedro Lopez traveled to Peru with a newly acquired taste for blood. He had also developed an intense hatred for his mother — and by proxy, other women — and a distorted objectification of women due to a porn addiction, according to La Vanguardia. But instead of targeting his mother or other adult women, Lopez decided to start kidnapping and killing young girls in the Ayacucho region of Peru. Lopez later explained that he started by abducting girls from the nearby Indigenous communities, especially those in the more remote areas. He offered the young children gifts if they came along with him, specifically targeting the ones with “a certain look of innocence.” After luring a victim away from her loved ones and local community, Lopez explained, “I would take her to a secret hideaway where prepared graves waited… I cuddled them and then raped them at sunrise. At the first sign of light I would get excited. I forced the girl into sex and put my hands around her throat. When the sun rose I would strangle her.” YouTubePedro Lopez targeted Indigenous girls because he believed white girls were “watched” too closely by their parents. Lopez delighted in watching “a certain light” go out in his victims’ eyes, but his murderous rituals didn’t end with the young girls’ deaths. He would then violate their dead bodies before hiding or burying the corpses before he went after his next victims. He also noted that he never kidnapped or killed white girls because “their parents were too watchful.” He would later claim that during this period in Peru, he murdered more than 100 girls between the ages of nine and 12, which would eventually earn him the moniker “Monster of the Andes.” This string of murders only came to a halt because a group of Ayachucos Indigenous people discovered Lopez as he was attempting to lure away a nine-year-old girl from their community. “Indians in Peru had me tied up and buried in sand to my neck when they found what I had been doing to their daughters,” Lopez recalled of his near-death experience. “They had placed syrup on me and were going to let me be eaten by ants. But an American missionary lady came by in her Jeep and promised them she would turn me over to the police.” The Ayachucos reluctantly agreed to let the woman take Lopez to the police, dug him up, and returned his belongings to him. But as Lopez and the American woman walked away, some accounts say, she never handed him over to the police. Other accounts say that Lopez was handed over, but managed to escape as he was being sent over to Ecuador. In either case, Lopez was once again free, and his violent crimes continued. The Capture And Eventual Release Of The “Monster Of The Andes” In the late 1970s and 1980, more and more young girls were disappearing as Pedro Lopez had moved on to Colombia and Ecuador. However, without any bodies, most police officers assumed that the disappearances were related to human trafficking or child runaways, not a serial killer. But, as 9News reported, their opinion changed in 1979, when a flash flood in Ambato, Ecuador revealed the bodies of four young girls. The discovery was shocking, but when locals reported seeing Lopez leading a 10-year-old girl away just days later, they connected the dots. Police quickly apprehended Lopez, and an undercover investigator posed as his cellmate in order to get a confession. In their cell, Lopez ended up telling his “cellmate” about the brutal rapes and murders he had committed. Lopez eventually led police to a mass burial site, where he had dumped the bodies of 53 of his victims. A few months later, Lopez claimed to have killed many more, placing the total number, by his count, at more than 300. However, some experts have suggested that Lopez may have been exaggerating and that the number of victims may in fact be closer to 70. TwitterPedro Lopez has been free since 1998, but his current whereabouts are unknown. In 1980, Pedro Lopez was ultimately convicted for the murder of 110 people and sentenced to the maximum prison term allowed under Ecuadorian law at the time. Unfortunately, that was only 16 years. Then, he was released two years early, in 1994, for “good behavior,” and deported back to Colombia. There, he was expected to face the firing squad for his crimes committed in that country, but prosecutors were unable to make a case for it. A judge instead declared that Lopez was insane and ordered that he be placed in a psychiatric hospital. But then, in 1998, the hospital unexpectedly declared him to be sane and released him. Lopez was supposed to report to the police each month after that, but he never did. Just a few years later, in 2002, Interpol issued a new warrant for his arrest in connection with a new murder case. But the last time Lopez was seen in public was in 1999, when he was renewing his citizenship card in Bogotá. His whereabouts remain unknown to this day. After learning about Pedro Lopez, read about some other disturbing serial killers from history. Then, meet the four scariest teenage serial killers. The post Why Pedro Lopez Might Be The Worst Serial Killer You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Utah Department of Cultural & Community EngagementArchaeologists and volunteers teamed up to uncover more than 5,000 artifacts at Alta Ski Area near Salt Lake City. In the summer of 2025, the installation of snowmaking pipes at Utah’s Alta Ski Area uncovered thousands of relics from a mining town that stood at the site more than a century ago. Alta was founded around 1865 to house prospectors working in the silver mines of Little Cottonwood Canyon, but it was mostly destroyed 20 years later by an avalanche and subsequent fire. The area where the excavations took place was once a busy thoroughfare known as Water Street. Archaeologists and volunteers unearthed bottles, shoe soles, bullets, a leather mining hat, and much more, revealing the intimate details of daily life in Alta in the late 19th century. An Unexpected Archaeological Treasure Trove At Alta Ski Area When the U.S. Forest Service asked archaeologist Jeremy Moore to oversee planned construction work at Alta Ski Area last summer, Moore didn’t expect to find much, particularly after the first day of the dig was uneventful. But toward the end of day two, historical artifacts began emerging from the dirt. Utah State Historic Preservation OfficeA coin from 1873 that was uncovered during excavations at Alta. As Moore told The Salt Lake Tribune, “Essentially, I’m one person here and my job is to kind of watch and make sure [the workers digging the trench] are not going to mess anything up, but there are already hundreds and hundreds of things, and I’m trying to screen dirt while I’m watching and trying to pull out artifacts.” Many of the items were in pristine condition, from bottles and coins to clothing and bullets. They were the remnants of the 19th-century mining town of Alta, which was built at the site of the current ski resort around 1865. When it became clear that there were still thousands of artifacts to uncover, the Utah State Historic Preservation Office called in volunteers to help. Over the following days, they found bones, shoe soles, cookware and fine china, ink wells, pistols, a 16-pound dumbbell, perfume bottles, and more. One bottle still had a label for Dr. Crossman’s Specific Mixture, which was marketed as a cure for “Gonorrhoea, Gleets, Strictures, and analogous complaints of the Organs of Generation.” Another, still corked, was full of alcohol. It’s currently being analyzed, and so far, experts believe it’s an apple-based sherry or cider. Utah Department of Cultural & Community EngagementA 150-year-old corked bottle was still full of alcohol, which is believed to be sherry or cider. Perhaps the most fascinating artifact was an intact leather hat with two small holes where miners would have inserted a “Sticking Tommy,” a piece of iron that held a candle to create a makeshift headlamp. While none of these discoveries are particularly valuable or groundbreaking, they do show what day-to-day life was like for the miners and their families who lived in Alta more than a century ago. The History Behind The 19th-Century Mining Town Of Alta, Utah In the 1860s, silver was discovered in Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon, and several small communities were built to house the miners flocking to the area. One of these was Alta, which was constructed on a flat stretch along Little Cottonwood Creek just outside of Salt Lake City. Saloons, brothels, stores, butcher shops, laundromats, hotels, restaurants, Chinese apothecaries, and houses soon popped up around Water Street, forming a town of more than 1,000 people that thrived until the mid-1870s. Then, the falling value of silver led to a drop in population, but around 300 residents remained. Utah State Historical SocietyThe town of Alta in the 1870s, when it was home to more than 1,000 silver miners and their families. But in 1885, disaster struck. A massive avalanche destroyed much of Alta and killed at least 13 people. An article in The Salt Lake Herald from February 15, 1885, declared “The Dread Avalanche Sweeps Over the Town… Demolishing all the Houses in the Place but Seven — A Terrible Disaster.” In the aftermath of the avalanche, a fire destroyed many of the remaining structures, and Alta was all but abandoned. However, it was these very tragedies that preserved so many artifacts for more than a century. The snow, ash, and dirt covered the objects and discouraged looters, while the cold temperatures for much of the year slowed the items’ decay. So far, between 5,000 and 6,000 artifacts have been uncovered, but archaeologists think there may be a million more still buried beneath Alta Ski Area. They hope to conduct another dig this coming summer to learn even more about the long-lost mining town and the people who lived there. After learning about the mining town artifacts found at a Utah ski resort, look through 33 photos of other Wild West mining towns. Then, go inside 13 of America’s eeriest ghost towns. The post Thousands Of Artifacts From A 19th-Century Mining Town Were Unearthed In Utah During Construction At A Luxury Ski Resort appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Mike Hoffmann/Wikimedia CommonsThe airplane involved in the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 disaster, pictured here in 1980. On Aug. 31, 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 took off from New York City with 246 passengers and 23 crew members on board. It was bound for South Korea — but it would never arrive. After a brief stop in Anchorage to refuel, the plane continued its journey across the Bering Sea. However, a navigational error sent it off its planned course and directly into Soviet airspace. As military forces in the U.S.S.R. watched the aircraft on radar, senior officials made the decision to shoot it down if it strayed into their territory again. So, when the plane crossed over Sakhalin Island, a Soviet pilot fired two air-to-air missiles. Korean Air Lines Flight 007 crashed into the Sea of Japan a few minutes later. There were no survivors. In the aftermath, the U.S.S.R. claimed that they’d thought the aircraft was a spy plane. However, U.S. President Ronald Reagan suggested that the incident was an intentional “act of barbarism,” adding fuel to the blazing flames of the Cold War. The Ill-Fated Journey Of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Korean Air Lines Flight 007 left John F. Kennedy International Airport shortly after midnight on Aug. 31, 1983. It landed as scheduled at Anchorage International Airport to refuel before continuing on to its final destination of Gimpo International Airport in Seoul. There were 246 passengers and 23 crew members on board, for a total of 269 people, including 22 children under age 12. U.S. Representative Larry McDonald was also on the plane, heading to Seoul to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the United States-South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty. The flight was supposed to follow a common path across the Bering Sea that took it south of Soviet territory and across northern Japan before landing in South Korea. Just 10 minutes after taking off from Alaska, however, it began deviating from its planned route, straying slightly to the north. Public DomainA flight map of Korean Air Lines Flight 007’s intended route (dotted line) versus its actual path (solid line). Experts believe that the crew either failed to switch the autopilot into the proper mode or did so too late. Either way, nobody noticed that the aircraft was heading straight for Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. It was an error that proved to be fatal. The Soviet Union Shoots Down A Civilian Plane Korean Air Lines Flight 007 entered Soviet airspace at a particularly precarious moment in history. Tensions were high between Moscow and Washington, D.C. A few months earlier, President Reagan had denounced the U.S.S.R. as an “evil empire.” Now, 269 passengers and crew members were caught in the middle of a geopolitical storm. Around 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 1, 1983 (the plane had crossed the International Date Line during its journey west), Flight 007 entered the restricted airspace surrounding the Kamchatka Peninsula. Soviet forces were carefully monitoring the radar because they were carrying out a missile test in the area. They were also aware that the U.S. Air Force had deployed an RC-135 military reconnaissance plane nearby. Public DomainU.S. Representative Larry McDonald was among the passengers on the doomed flight. As the passenger plane approached the peninsula, the Soviets sent four jets to intercept it, but the flight returned to international airspace before they could reach it. General Valeri Kamensky, Commander of the Soviet Far East District Air Defense Forces, then ordered the plane’s destruction if it was positively identified as a military aircraft. But General Anatoly Kornukov, who commanded the Sokol Air Base, was more aggressive with his assessment. He stated that since the plane had already entered Soviet airspace once, it should be destroyed if it did so again, even without proper identification. As reported by The New Yorker in 1993, Kornukov said, “I am giving the order to attack if it crosses the state border.” So, when Korean Air Lines Flight 007 flew over Sakhalin Island, Major Gennadiy Osipovich fired two air-to-air missiles from his Su-15 fighter jet. Whether one or both missiles made impact remains unclear, but the fate of everyone on board was sealed. The plane didn’t explode immediately, though. Its descent into the Sea of Japan lasted several excruciating minutes, ending in a violent downward spiral that left no survivors. The World’s Reaction To The Tragic Attack The world awoke to shock and confusion on Sept. 1, 1983, as muddled details about the downed Korean Air Lines plane slowly emerged. Early reporting by The New York Times noted that the U.S.S.R. refused to acknowledge that they’d shot down the plane. Library of CongressMembers of the Korean Association of New York read a New York Post article about the downed aircraft. Sept. 1, 1983. However, President Reagan called the attack a “horrifying act of violence” and demanded an explanation. Moscow initially stayed silent on the matter, but Soviet officials soon responded with a narrative of their own: The U.S.S.R. claimed that the apparently unidentified aircraft had deliberately provoked Soviet defenses and appeared to be involved in U.S. espionage in enemy airspace, forcing the communist regime to shoot the airliner down. International outrage followed. Numerous governments suspended negotiations, canceled prior agreements, and imposed new restrictions on the U.S.S.R. Public demonstrations against the Soviet Union sprang up in New York City, Seoul, and Tokyo before a damning national address from President Reagan on Sept. 5. “Commercial aircraft from the Soviet Union and Cuba on a number of occasions have overflown sensitive United States military facilities,” Reagan said, as documented by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. “They weren’t shot down. We and other civilized countries believe in the tradition of offering help to mariners and pilots who are lost or in distress on the sea or in the air.” The president added, “We believe in following procedures to prevent a tragedy, not to provoke one. But despite the savagery of their crime, the universal reaction against it, and the evidence of their complicity, the Soviets still refuse to tell the truth. They have persistently refused to admit that their pilot fired on the Korean aircraft.” Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection/UCLA Library Digital CollectionsKorean Americans in Long Beach, California, protesting the attack on Korean Air Lines Flight 007. Sept. 7, 1983. And as more information came out about the incident, the political fallout continued to escalate. The Turbulent Aftermath Of The Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Tragedy The International Civil Aviation Organization launched its own investigation of the tragedy and came to two conclusions: According to their findings, “The flight crew did not implement the proper navigation procedures to ensure the aircraft remained on its assigned track throughout the flight.” In addition, “The U.S.S.R. air defence command assumed that KE 007 was a United States RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft before they ordered its destruction.” However, the Soviet Union wasn’t innocent by any means. They had found the wreckage in the Sea of Japan and secretly retrieved the plane’s voice recorder, which confirmed that the flight wasn’t part of a U.S. reconnaissance mission. Soviet leadership had been desperate to maintain this narrative as justification for shooting down the aircraft. Then, in 1996, Gennadiy Osipovich, the pilot who downed Korean Air Lines Flight 007, made a shocking revelation. He told The New York Times, “I saw two rows of windows and knew that this was a Boeing. I knew this was a civilian plane. But for me this meant nothing. It is easy to turn a civilian type plane into one for military use… I did not tell the ground that it was a Boeing-type plane. They did not ask me.” It was also discovered that Soviet forces had seen that the passenger plane had navigational lights, which a military aircraft wouldn’t have been using during a spy mission. Still, they decided to fire the missiles, killing hundreds of innocent people. Public DomainShips search for the wreckage of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 during recovery operations in the Sea of Japan. Sept. 17, 1983. The incident went on to have major consequences for air travel. President Reagan noted in his national address that Soviet military planes were not equipped with international radio wavelengths, communication through which could have prevented the fatal aerial escalation in 1983. As a result, the U.S. announced that Global Positioning System (GPS) would be standardized and freely available for civil aviation. The tragedy also fueled conspiracy theories that continue to this day. One claims that the U.S. downed the plane itself to kill Rep. Larry McDonald, who had spoken out against industrialists such as the Rockefellers and their alleged efforts to create a “one-world government.” What’s more, divers exploring the crash site purportedly found very little luggage and only a few bodies. They stated that it looked as if the debris had been dragged to the seafloor. The Soviets also claimed that former president Richard Nixon was expected to be on the plane — until the CIA warned him not to board. In the end, however, no conspiracy theory can change the fact that 269 people lost their lives due to navigational error, political mistrust, and the heightened tensions of the Cold War. After reading about the tragedy of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, go inside the worst plane crashes in aviation history. Then, learn about Camp Century, the U.S. military base built in Greenland during the Cold War. The post The Tragic Story Of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, The Civilian Plane Shot Down In 1983 appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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