PETROV DAY - 26TH SEPTEMBER

When World War 3 was averted -

It was just under four weeks of USSR's downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 on 1st September 1983 into the Sea of Japan with 269 on board including 23 crew members when the former's nuclear early-warning system, manned by Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (7 Sep 1939 – 19 May 2017) of the Soviet Air Defence, reported that a missile had been launched from the US, this day, 1983...

Petrov's sole duty was to monitor satellite surveillance equipment and report missile attack warnings to his superior in command, who would have decided the nature of response...

Petrov analysed the warning as a false alarm, which was his gut feeling as well, and thus decided not to bother his superiors, who under those circumstances would have certainly pulled the trigger to set the WW3 ball rolling...

Investigations confirmed Petrov's hunch, and the system had malfunctioned, detecting a rare alignment of sunlight on clouds above North Dakota as a missile strike...

Petrov gave valid explanations for his judgement and 'inaction', which he attributed to his earlier civilian training in addition to military, to his superiors who subjected him to tough questioning. The incident thus exposed a serious flaw in the Soviet early warning system...

Petrov left military in 1984 for a job at the institute that had developed the early warning system. He retired to care for his ailing wife. In 1998 Petrov reportedly suffered a mental breakdown, with a feeling that he was made a scapegoat...

The man who averted a possible WW3, Petrov received no reward. For, it embarrassed his superiors and the scientists responsible for it, and they would have faced punishment had he received one...

🙏🙏