"Yankee Doodle Refugee" <yankee_doodle_refugee@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:1132624562.437325.199870@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

 <snip>

Over Sakhalin, KAL-007 was finally intercepted by a Soviet Sukhoi-15
fighter. The Soviet pilot tried to signal the plane to land, but the
KAL pilots apparently did not see the repeated warnings. Amid confusion
about the plane's identity -- a U.S. spy plane had been in the vicinity
hours earlier

 <snip>

 Reconnaissance or surveillance aircraft.

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/rc-135w-DFST9209191.JPG