Stanislav Petrov: The Night the Missiles Weren't Real
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1. The bunker
September 1983. The Cold War is at its tensest. Weeks earlier, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner, killing all 269 people on board.
Near Moscow, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov is on duty in the bunker that watches for American missile launches.
2. The alarm
Shortly after midnight on September 26, the alarms go off. The satellite system reports a missile launched from the United States.
3. Five missiles
Then the computer reports four more. Five missiles, heading for the Soviet Union.
4. Doubt
Petrov doesn't believe it. A real American first strike would mean hundreds of missiles, not five.
The system is new, and nothing else confirms a launch.
5. The call
He reports it as a false alarm, and waits for proof that never comes.
He later said he was never completely sure he was right.
6. The cause
The cause: sunlight glinting off high clouds, which the satellites mistook for rocket launches.
7. Honoured
Petrov got no reward, and the story stayed secret until 1998. Historians still debate how close the world came.
He is widely honoured for keeping a cool head. He always said he was simply doing his job.