[meteorite-list] Meteorite May Have Caused Flash That Alarmed Israeli Pilot, Ukraine Says

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:00:05 2004
Message-ID: <200207070402.VAA08841_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0562_BC_Ukraine-IsraeliPlane&&news&newsflash-international

Meteorite may have caused flash that alarmed Israeli pilot, Ukraine says
The Associated Press
July 6, 2002

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A meteorite may have caused the flash that alarmed an
Israeli pilot flying over Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said Saturday,
insisting it was not a missile.

An El Al pilot reported seeing a missile fired from the ground over central
Ukraine during a Tel Aviv-Moscow flight on Thursday night. Israeli officials
said the missile exploded a few miles from the plane.

Pilots of two other planes flying over the Dnipropetrovsk region reported
seeing a big blue fireball that resembled a missile explosion at the same
time, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies cited Ukrainian aviation
officials as saying Saturday.

The incident was a sensitive issue in the Ukraine because in October, an
errant missile fired from a Ukrainian military base shot down a Russian
plane, killing all 78 people on board, most of them immigrants to Israel.

On Saturday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that
no missiles had been fired in the area that night and that the pilots may
have witnessed a meteorite entering the Earth's atmosphere.

Officials from Ukraine's National Space Agency also suggested a meteorite
could have been the culprit, as did Yaroslav Skalko, deputy chairman of
Ukraine's civil aviation department, ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported.

"The airplane crews who saw over Ukrainian territory on July 4 a flash
that resembled a missile explosion were observing phenomena of unidentified
origin not related to the activities of the Ukrainian armed forces," the
Defense Ministry statement said.

The ministry said the stocks of missiles and other long-range ammunition
have been inspected and nothing is missing, according to ITAR-Tass and
Interfax.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said Friday that no missile-firing
exercises had been held in Ukraine since the October crash.

Israeli officials were especially concerned about the incident because it
came the same day that an Egyptian immigrant shot and killed two people at
the El Al's ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport.
Received on Sun 07 Jul 2002 12:02:52 AM PDT