DTWLAX wrote:

Why was the aircraft flying close to ANC? Seems way off on gcmap

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=AMS-NRT

The answer is simple, prior to 1998 non-stop flights Europe-Tokyo were non-existent (only AY flew HEL-TYO nonstop from 1983).

During much of the Cold War, the Arctic region was a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and North America; civilian flights from Europe to the Asian Far East were unable to cross the Soviet Union or China and had to use a Middle East route or connect through Anchorage, Alaska across the Arctic region. These Cold War tracks extended from the northern Alaskan coast across Greenland to Europe. Korean Air Lines Flight 902 operated with a Boeing 707 was shot down over the USSR by a Soviet Air Force fighter aircraft in 1978 after the flight crew made gross navigational errors attempting to fly the assigned polar route.

Prior to the advent of today's modern long range jetliners, Anchorage International Airport (ANC) in Alaska was a technical stop for a number of airlines flying the polar route between western Europe and Tokyo. According to the July 1, 1983 edition of the Worldwide Official Airline Guide (OAG), Air France, British Airways, Japan Air Lines (JAL), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Sabena and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) were all operating flights between Japan and western Europe which included a stop in Anchorage.

U.S. based air carrier Western Airlines also flew a polar route during the early 1980s between London Gatwick Airport and Honolulu using DC-10-30 aircraft, with these flights also making a stop in Anchorage.

Following the end of the Cold War, the main obstacle to flights across Russia was the Russian air traffic control system and a lack of English communication. To solve these issues, RACGAT (Russian-American Coordinating Group for Air Traffic) was formed in 1993. By summer 1998, the Russian government gave permission to open four cross-polar routes, named Polar 1, 2, 3 and 4.

KLM B747-400 PH-BFC operated an AMS-ANC-TYO service and entered a cloud of vulcanic ash over Alaska, leading to the loss of all four engines. Luckily the crew managed to re-start them in time and made a safe landing at ANC. The aircraft was out of service for a significant length of time.