During the Cold War , the Arctic region was a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and North America . Civilian flights from Europe to the Asian Far East were prohibited from crossing the Eastern Bloc countries , Soviet Union or China , and either had to fly via the Middle East or fly across Arctic North America and Greenland with a refueling stop in Anchorage . These Cold War tracks extended from the northern Alaskan coast across Greenland to Europe . Korean Air Lines Flight 902 operated with a Boeing 707 was shot down over the USSR by a Soviet Air Force fighter aircraft in 1978 after the flight crew made gross navigational errors attempting to fly the assigned polar route
Korean Air Lines Flight 902
Korean Air Lines Flight 902
Polar route