Death Flight

To the Editors:

In an era of sophisticated electronic-surveillance capabilities, it is ridiculous for the Soviet Union to accuse the U.S. of using a commercial airliner [Sept. 12] as a spy plane.

Leo V. Ring

Beverly, Mass.

Horror, yes! Surprise, no!

Howard W. Klippert

East Aurora, N. Y.

We can continue to debate whether it was Soviet bumbling or brutality that ultimately caused the Korean air massacre, but we cannot argue with or hide from its meaning: the Soviet Union is armed, dangerous and trigger-happy. It is time the civilized world recognized this fact and acted accordingly.

Ojars Kalnins

Chicago

The poor American citizen. Embarrassed by the gutless bravado of President Reagan and the wistful whimsy of nuclear freezers, he stands helpless before the latest lunge by the rabid misanthropes in the Kremlin.

John P. Taylor

Mission Viejo, Calif.

Even bearing in mind the extenuating factors that directed the judgment of the Soviet pilot to down the Korean passenger plane, one must still be appalled by the conscienceless response and by the inhuman and dehumanizing brutality of the system that conditioned him.

Violet S. Tartell

Durham, N.C.

The Soviet Union has firmly stated that in a war it would not be the first side to resort to nuclear weapons, but who believes the word of a nation that shoots down passenger airliners?

Tony Powell

Long Island City, N. Y.

We who live outside the direct Soviet sphere of influence profess to live in a civilized world. But the incident involves a cover-up on the part of the Korean and the U.S governments. Do not tell me pilot error caused the Korean airliner to enter Soviet airspace.

Jinsuk Tommy Oh

Cambridge, Mass.

Any Soviet fighter pilot who cannot accurately discriminate between a lumbering 747 passenger airliner and an enemy plane bent on harm should be ordered back to basic training for a refresher course in plane identification.

Don Kees

Moscow, Idaho

What killed 269 innocent people was hatred. Hatred between two political superpowers that, I fear, will never understand each other.

David Francis

Greenbrae, Calif.

Will the slaughter of Flight 007 deter any corporation or any nation from doing business as usual with the Soviet swine? I doubt it.

Thomas Berthold

Hollywood, Fla.

Rhubarbing over Ruburbia

Your Essay "Welcome to Ruburbia" [Sept. 12] has added a great new word to our language. In Washington County, Texas, an area about 80 miles from Houston, ruburbians have long been known as the "mink and manure set."

Stanley Shipnes

Northport, Mich.

Please not ruburbia! It suggests a place where the rubes rub against the urbs, and where rhubarb is grown and sold at roadside stands. A perfectly good term to describe that transitional, temporary zone of land-use clash between the rural and the suburban is exurban. This was coined by A.C. Spectorsky in his 1955 book The Exurbanites to describe such areas from New Canaan to Hopewell to New Hope. Exurbia, yes! Ruburbia, no way!

Ray O'Brien

Professor of Geography

Bucks County Community College

Newtown, Pa.