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1.11.4
Between 21:00 and 23:00 hours on 31 August 1983 Tokyo RCC determined a search area around reporting point NOKKA. Tokyo RCC requested the Japan Maritime Safety Agency (JMSA), the JDA and the United States Forces in Japan to conduct the search and rescue operations. Subsequently, JMSA dispatched twelve vessels and five aircraft to the search area.
1.11.5
At 23:30 hours JMSA received information from JDA that an aircraft had been observed on radar about 100 NM northeast of Wakkanai, moving in a southwesterly direction. This contact was last observed by the JDA Wakkanai radar surveillance station at 18:29 hours. Following receipt of the above information, JMSA dispatched two patrol vessels to the area west of Sakhalin Island and prepared two aircraft for take-off at Wakkanai Airport. Between 06:10 and 14:30 hours, JMSA dispatched eight additional patrol vessels to the waters west of Sakhalin Island.
1.11.6
During the interception of KE 007 the USSR command centres of the Air Defence Forces alerted the USSR rescue services at Nevelsk to be on standby in the event search and rescue efforts were required. Immediately after the destruction of KE 007 the USSR rescue services were directed to the area north of Moneron Island. Military vessels, fishing vessels, submersibles, helicopters and aeroplanes of the USSR participated in the search. Upon their arrival in the area many small objects were seen in the water, and the area of search was more precisely determined. Trawlers recovered numerous items in this area. Later USSR naval divers were able to locate the wreckage on the sea bottom.
1.11.7
Aircraft of the United States Fifth Air Force were in the general area of the shoot-down by 1 September 1983, and were joined the next day by naval units. From 1 to 13 September these forces searched for surface debris. Underwater search operations began on 14 September using homing equipment to detect the underwater locator device attached to KE 007's DFDR, sidescan sonars, sonobuoys and an underwater remote-controlled vehicle. These efforts were aimed at detecting KE 007's underwater locator device. Three ships reported possible contact from 19 to 24 September; contact was held generally within a two-mile radius from 46°25'30"N, 140°56'30"E. Search of a 60 square mile "high probability" area associated with these possible contacts was completed on 21 October without success. A "large probability" area was established east of the contact area, based on Japanese radar track data and interviews with Japanese fishermen; the search of this area was also unsuccessful. The search operations lasted until 5 November and covered an area approximately 225 square miles in international waters, extending in an arc from northwest to northeast of Moneron Island.
1.11.8
From 3 to 29 September 1983 four ships from the Republic of Korea were searching the area. On 11 and 13 September the Republic of Korea sent teams to Wakkanai, Japan, to identify wreckage debris and human remains.
1.11.9
On 26 September 1983 USSR officials handed over to United States and Japanese officials, at Nevelsk on Sakhalin Island, sixty items of wreckage and eighteen articles of personal property.
1.11.10
Over 700 items of wreckage and personal possessions, some of which had drifted ashore on the northeast side of Hokkaido Island, were found by the Japanese authorities. The wreckage handed over by USSR officials and that recovered by the Japanese authorities was handed over to the Government of the Republic of Korea. The wreckage was examined in Seoul by members of the ICAO fact-finding investigation on 6 October 1983. Several items of wreckage could be identified as coming from a