17 SEPTEMBER 1983, Page 19

How did it go off course?

Sir: Mr Nicholas von Hoffman and Mr Murray Sayle appear to disagree on how the ,Path of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was determined (10 September). Mr Sayle says that the path could have been taken `if only the coordinates of Anchorage and Seoul by no intermediates had been punched in uY the pilot and first officer', but Mr von Hoffman says that the aeroplane was 'equiPned with a navigational computer Which is not programmed by hand. A tape cassette with the plane's route ... is fed Into the computer. Can this point be clarified? The questions of how and by ‘vhnni the aeroplane was directed into 'Viet air space do seem significant.

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