Apparent missile alarms airline pilots
Reports spark fears about North Korea’s risk to civilian flights.
Pilots of three commercial jets reported seeing what appeared to be the missile that North Korea launched last week, raising questions about the possible risk to civilian flights from the North’s weapons program.
The flight crew of Cathay Pacific Flight 893 from San Francisco to Hong Kong last Wednesday saw “what is suspected to be the re-entry” of the North Korean missile, the airline said this week.
In addition, the pilots of two Korean Air flights bound for Incheon International Airport near Seoul, South Korea’s capital, saw “a flash, and everyone is assuming it should be the missile because of the timing,” said a Korean Air spokesman who asked not to be named, citing company policy.
The North’s intercontinental ballistic missile flew for 53 minutes last Wednesday before crashing down in waters 600 miles to the east. It had the potential to fly more than 8,000 miles, analysts said, putting all of the continental United States in range. North Korea called the new missile the Hwasong-15, and photos suggested advancements over earlier models.
Because the Hwasong-15 and several other missiles North Korea recently tested were launched at a high angle, they landed far closer to home than they could have. Still, several recent missiles have traveled out of North Korean airspace and closer to areas frequented by civilian flights. The North has been carrying out its missile tests without warning for years.
The missiles “are predominantly re-entering into Japanese airspace,” Flight Service Bureau, a Florida-based aviation consulting firm, said in August. “This creates a new risk to civil aviation.”
Cathay Pacific said its plane was “far from the event location” Wednesday, but it did not say how far. The sighting was reported to air traffic controllers in Japan, and the flight’s “operation remained normal and was not affected,” the airline said.
Korean Air said it was unclear how far the apparent missile re-entry was from its own planes, whose flights originated in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Military weapons have sometimes downed civilian flights, including Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which investigators say was hit by a Russian surface-to-air missile over Ukraine in 2014. While the intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, that North Korea has recently tested are not meant for use against aircraft, they could still pose a risk to planes.
Both Cathay Pacific and Korean Air said they were not taking any new precautions. “We have been in contact with relevant authorities and industry bodies as well as with other carriers,” Cathay Pacific said in its statement.