NTSB Looking at Reports of Missile Sightings

WASHINGTON (April 10, 1997 09:37 a.m. EDT) -- The National Transportation Safety Board is looking into pilots' reports from the New York area of what might have been missile flights last month.

"We're looking at it, as we would any reports of this type," said board spokesman Ted Lopatkowicz.

Allegations that a missile might have been responsible for the explosion of TWA Flight 800 last July 17, killing 230 people, have raised concerns. The crash remains unsolved and rumors of missile sightings have been rife on the Internet.

The Saint Paul Pioneer Press reported in a copyright story Wednesday that the pilots of three passenger jets have told federal investigators they think they saw a missile or rocket over the New York City area on the night of March 17.

Lopatkowicz said the Navy was conducting missile tests off the coast of Florida at the same time as the New York reports but he could not say whether those might have been visible so far away.

"They (the airline pilots) were pretty high up and so would the tests be," he commented.

"What we've done is pull the radar data from the New York center and we're listening to the voice tapes and looking at the radar data," he said.

According to the Pioneer Press one of the pilots was on a Minneapolis-bound Northwest Airlines flight. The other flight crews were from Delta Air Lines and US Airways.