Crash investigators look into missile sightings

Jonathan T. Lovitt

04/11/1997

USA Today

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TWA Flight 800 crash investigators are looking into reports by commercial jet

pilots who say they saw a missile while flying near New York last month.

Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the FBI

say the pilots could have seen anything from a meteor to a missile launched

2,000 miles away.

The pilots' reports are of interest because Flight 800 exploded in midair off the

Long Island coast July 17, killing all 230 aboard. Investigators say a bomb,

missile or mechanical failure could have caused the crash. ``Obviously anything

that anyone sees in the sky we're going to take seriously, and we're going to look

at it,'' the FBI's James Kallstrom told WCBS Radio.

Pilots with Northwest, Delta and U.S. Airways flying near New York reported

seeing a streak of light at 7:15 p.m. on March 17. A Navy submarine off Florida

launched one of two unarmed Trident II missiles at 7:17 p.m. The discrepancy is

within accepted variances for timekeeping. Both missiles flew east into the

Atlantic Ocean, the Navy says.

The NTSB says the missiles, which reach altitudes of 80 miles and can land

more than 6,000 miles away, could have been seen by pilots thousands of miles

away.

Pilots flying in the southeastern USA as well as boaters and people along the

shore were told of the missile launches. But notices were not issued as far north

as New York.

Defense experts, however, doubt that anyone in New York could have seen a

missile launched near Florida. They say the Trident II missiles are visible only

40 miles away.

``It stretches the imagination to think that pilots could have seen this particular

test,'' Pentagon spokesman Michael Doubleday said. ``I don't claim to know what

they would have seen.''

The Trident II is about four stories tall and 7 feet in diameter. When armed, it

carries many nuclear warheads.

The Navy fired two unarmed Tridents from the nuclear-powered submarine USS

West Virginia to test their accuracy. Since 1989, 76 Tridents have been fired

from the same test range.