Alignment error analysis of KAL KE007 inertial navigation system

It is tragic that the Korean Airline Boing 747, KE007, wandered hundreds of miles off course into Soviet airspace and was shot down on September 1, 1983. The exact cuases are not known yet. Thus, speculation centers on human error or faulty procedure of three Litton LTN-72R inertial navigation systems(INS) with which the KAL KE007 was equipped. The inertial platform must be aligned before the INS can be used as a precision inertial navigation system. This analysis checks a possibility that the navigation errors are caused by a wrong INS alignment procedure assuming it is done at Anchorage. Possible causes for the navigational position error, such as alignment errors and gyro drift errors, are analyzed through inertial navigation system error prapagation simulations. A set of misalignment angle is estimated to determine what degree of alignment errors are required to cause the navigation error assuming that the accident is caused by the INS misalignment.