DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997 TAG: 9704110656 SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 34 lines
The Navy tested two Trident D-5 missiles off the coast of Florida last month, but a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday it ``stretches the imagination'' the missiles might have been seen by pilots flying near New York City.
The National Transportation Safety Board is examining pilots' reports of possible missile flights on March 17 in the New York City area.
``We're looking at it, as we would any reports of this type,'' board spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said Wednesday.
The St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported in a copyrighted 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.
The possibility that a missile was responsible for the explosion of TWA Flight 800 last July 17, killing 230 people, has not been ruled out by investigators.
New York FBI head James Kallstrom said investigators were reviewing the reports but said that similar sightings in the past have turned out to be meteor showers.
``We are not questioning the validity of the report or the observations made by the pilots,'' said Kallstrom. At the Pentagon, Navy Capt. Michael Doubleday said the Navy missiles were sent eastward over the Atlantic toward the Azores, and had been launched from the submarine West Virginia, whose homeport is in Kings Bay, Ga.
``It stretches the imagination that anybody could see 1,900 to 2,000 miles, no matter what altitude they are flying at,'' he said of the pilot reports.
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