El Al pilot reports missile flash
05 July, 2002 08:54 BST
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The pilot of an El Al Israel Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Moscow has reported seeing a surface-to-air missile explosion as he flew over Ukraine on Thursday, Israel's transport minister says..
But he said the Israeli plane was never in danger and voiced doubt it had come under attack.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said Ukraine had not conducted any missile launches since accidentally downing a Russian airliner on a flight last October from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk in Siberia, killing 78 passengers and crew.
Israeli Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh said on Friday that he had spoken at length with the El Al pilot, whom he described as an experienced combat veteran of the Israeli air force.
"There is no doubt that he saw a missile that exploded in the air, apparently far from the plane," Sneh told Israeli Army Radio. "Circumstances suggest it was not launched at the El Al plane."
Reports of the purported missile launch followed an attack at an El Al counter at Los Angeles airport in which a gunman killed two people before security guards shot him dead.
Konstantin Khyvrenko, a Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesman, said the reported sighting "could be anything -- something from the natural world, like a sudden change of temperature (or) lightning strike".
Amos Shapira, El Al's managing director, told Army Radio: "The pilot saw a flash...It was at least 10 to 100 miles away. The plane was in no danger."