Great story Beamr.. never heard it before ! . yes, "deviating " Russian Aeroflot aircraft were common in those days ., especially the Tu134s , who ,as we suspected and learned later , had cameras in the glass nose and radio listening devices and recorders in the hold. . I witnessed a couple above Belgium . always the same procedure, radio comms failure for a few minutes deviations, then back on track with a " sorry Nav problems " But they were not the only ones doing this in those days , the use of the Berlin corridors by French , British and US aircraft was a nice playing ground for those spy games back then ..