State papers: Financial impact on Shannon Airport influenced 'minimalist' response to Russian aggression

A memo prepared for the Government noted Shannon Airport would be heavily loss-making but for Aeroflot’s business due to a decline in traditional transatlantic stopover traffic from the development of longer-range aircraft. File picture 

The Irish government opposed a call by 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 1, 1983. Among 51 American citizens on board the aircraft was US Congressman Laurence MacDonald.