Soviet officer averted the threat by ignoring a nuclear launch warning

Intro For decades, men in bunkers watched their screens and warning lights every hour of every day, waiting for the Cold War to go nuclear. That was the situation just after midnight on September 26th, 1983. Shotlist 1. Wide: Petrov sitting on the bench. 00:00-00:12 2. SOUNDBITE, Stanislav Petrov, Soviet officer (speaking Russian): "When I first saw the alert message, I got up from my chair. All my subordinates were confused, so I started shouting orders at them to avoid panic. I knew my decision would have a lot of consequences. "The siren went off for a second time. Giant blood-red letters appeared on our main screen, saying START. It said that four more missiles had been launched. "My cozy armchair felt like a red hot frying pan and my legs went limp. I felt like I couldn't even stand up. That's how nervous I was when I was taking this decision. "We've never been as close to a nuclear war, neither before, nor later on. It was the very climax." 3. Wide and mid: Petrov showing award. 01:38-01:50 Story Stanislav Petrov was the Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the Soviet Union's early warning radar system in a bunker near Moscow. Had Petrov reported incoming American missiles, his superiors might have launched an assault against the United States, precipitating a corresponding nuclear response from the United States. Petrov declared the system's indication a false alarm. Later, it was apparent that he was right: no missiles were approaching and the computer detection system was malfunctioning. It was subsequently determined that the false alarm had been created by a rare alignment of sunlight on high-altitude clouds and the satellites' Molniya orbits, an error later corrected by cross-referencing a geostationary satellite. Petrov later indicated that the influences on his decision included: that he was informed a U.S. strike would be all-out, so five missiles seemed an illogical start; that the launch detection system was new and, in his view, not yet wholly trustworthy; and that ground radar failed to pick up corroborative evidence, even after minutes of delay. However in a 2013 interview, Petrov said at the time he was never sure that the alarm was erroneous. He felt that his civilian training helped him make the right decision. His colleagues were all professional soldiers with purely military training and, following instructions, would have reported a missile strike if they had been on his shift FreeVideo.RT.com