Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was on his way to the United States and Canada for a diplomatic visit on October 19th 1986 when his aircraft went down over the North Atlantic. The jetliner carrying the Soviet General Secretary, his staff, diplomats, security personnel and its crew were all aboard when it was witnessed on radar screens dropping fast and in what appeared to be an uncontrolled fashion towards the ocean far below. There were no radio communications that came from the aircraft and is disappeared when its altitude reached sea level. Other aircraft in the sky that morning were contacted though no one appeared to have seen anything to give an idea as to what exactly had happened.
Civilian air controllers on both sides of the North Atlantic sent out emergency alerts for a rescue effort to be mounted. They followed standard operational procedures even though it was at once realised that there wasn’t going to be much hope of finding anyone alive due to where the aircraft had gone down and in the manner that it had. Military headquarters were informed of what had happened due to their ability to send ships and aircraft. Naturally, it was very quickly realised who was the passenger aboard once the nationality of that aircraft was revealed.
Word was passed onto politicians and intelligence agencies. The media would take some time to find out yet it wouldn’t take that long for such news to be leaked to them. Everyone was going to start paying attention soon enough.